Sheriff cites multiple factors in favor of tearing down oldest building in detention center and constructing jail on that site
After learning that a new jail option potentially could save Sarasota County taxpayers about $30 million in construction costs — along with approximately $170 million in operating expenses — the County Commission voted unanimously on Aug. 27 to direct staff to delve into that new option while the staff also awaits cost estimates for two options the board members approved for consideration earlier this year.
It likely will be December before they will have more reliable cost estimates to consider for all three scenarios, Brad Gaubatz, manager of the county’s Capital Projects Department, told them this week.
During the discussion, which was part of the Aug. 27 regular meeting in Sarasota, Gaubatz explained that “several collaborative workshops” had taken place since February, involving representatives of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office’s Courts and Corrections Division, county staff and the jail design consultants the county had hired.
As a result, Sheriff Kurt A. Hoffman has proposed that a new jail be constructed on the site of the West Wing of the county detention center in downtown Sarasota. A temporary, “barracks-style” facility could be erected on the former site of the county’s Central Energy Plant, which is close to the three wings of the jail. Therefore, Hoffman said, the inmates in the West Wing — the oldest of the three jail buildings — could be moved into that temporary facility while the new jail was built on the site where the West Wing stands.
The scenario would eliminate the need to construct a new Criminal Justice Center (CJC) to replace the building standing at 2071 Ringling Blvd., where the Sheriff’s Office administrative offices used to be housed. The offices of 12th Judicial District State Attorney Ed Brodsky and Public Defender Larry Eger remain in the CJC, along with county records and offices of nonprofit organizations whose missions are related to law enforcement and the courts, as noted during the commission’s Aug. 19 budget workshop.
As Hoffman put it, “This [West Wing] option has the ability … to kill two birds with one stone.” First, it appears to be less expensive. Second, he said, it would present more efficient operating factors, as Maj. Brian Meinberg, the commander of the Courts and Corrections Division, has calculated.
Meinberg has proposed that only 80 beds be planned for each of the five floors of the new jail, Gaubatz said; the earlier proposal called for 160.
Thus, Hoffman pointed out, fewer full-time employees per shift would be needed to work in that new jail. Therefore, Hoffman said, the savings on the cost of operating the facility would be lowered by an estimated $170 million.
Moreover, he pointed out, as the oldest part of the county detention center, the West Wing has been in need of expensive maintenance in recent years, such as a new HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system and a new roof.
Most recently, Hoffman said, he and his staff have had to deal with flooding in that part of the jail.
Tearing down the West Wing would save the county more money, as the county no longer would have to invest in keeping that building functional, Hoffman added. The new jail on that site also would be expected to be more energy-efficient, he noted.
Another factor in favor of the West Wing option, Hoffman said, would be the elimination of the need to find other Florida sheriffs willing to house the inmates who would have to be removed from the West Wing for the construction planned in Option 2 or Option 3 for the new jail.
“You don’t always get a very receptive audience,” he emphasized of his fellow sheriffs, when they are asked to house inmates from another county. They look at the potential of dealing with those inmates’ health issues, for example, he said, not to mention the fact that they would be handling more people in their jails who were convicted of serious charges.
Nonetheless, Maj. Meinberg told the commissioners, “I do think, before we get [a new jail], we will be sending inmates out to another facility. I don’t think there’s any way around it.”
About a year ago, Meinberg continued, both the Sarasota and Manatee county sheriff’s offices were dealing with 1,100 inmates a day. Manatee, he continued, has “ballooned to over 1,300.”
Another slide that Gaubatz showed the board members said the rated capacity for the three wings of the Sarasota County detention center is 909. However, the operational capacity is 773, based on a variety of factors.
Sheriff’s Office personnel have explained in the past that, for example, women inmates must be housed separately from male inmates, and juveniles must be housed separately from adults.
Hoffman acknowledged, “We have a lot of beds already in hallways now.”
Meinberg did emphasize that the West Wing option would allow for the inmates from that facility to remain in Sarasota County during construction of the new jail.
After the temporary structure no longer was needed, Gaubatz said it would be retrofitted, though he did not indicate what its future use might be.
Yet another positive factor that Gaubatz noted is that the latest discussions had resulted in the decision that a shell of a sixth floor — for future growth — should not be part of the new jail structure after all, saving the county more money. He pointed to a slide that included jail population figures to indicate that the five floors should be sufficient well into the future.
However, Gaubatz did acknowledge that maintaining the existing Criminal Justice Center for another 20 years has been estimated to cost $27.5 million.
Sheriff Hoffman noted that, based on the recent discussions, he believes a new CJC will not be needed until “after all of us are long gone.”
The West Wing scenario has been put at a cost of $401,201,900, Gaubatz said, for planning purposes for the Aug. 27 discussion. That compares to an estimated expense of $549,537,900 for the new five-level jail that had been proposed on the site of the existing Criminal Justice Center, plus the construction of a new CJC.
“There is a significant amount of contingency and [inflation] escalation built in,” Gaubatz pointed out of the figures.
The planning timeline continues to call for the new jail to be ready for inmates in 2033.
Yet, Commissioner Tom Knight — the former three-term sheriff — continued to express concern this week about voters approving the necessary referendum — planned for the November 2026 General Election ballot — to pay for the new jail.
All options are a go
Gaubatz did note that the delivery of the cost estimates for the two jail options that the commissioners had approved earlier this year, for further study, would be delayed from late September until December, because of the investment in time needed for work on the financial aspects of this new option.
After Hoffman and Gaubatz concluded their initial remarks, Commissioner Teresa Mast said, “I would like to say that any option is on the table.” She added, “What I am not excited about” is waiting until December to get the cost estimates. “I would like to see [the presentation] come back before December.”
Addressing Gaubatz, she stressed, “I really want you to expedite this.” She characterized the jail as “busting at the seams.”
After staff has the cost estimates, Gaubatz told the commissioners, the project team will talk with them about speeding up their preferred option.
Although Commissioner Knight expressed concern, too, about the prospect that the county would end up having to spend money to maintain the aging CJC, he ended up making the motion to direct staff to pursue the West Wing replacement, along with those earlier two options. One of the latter calls for a new Criminal Justice Center to be constructed on the site of the county’s parking garage and surface lot located at the intersection of Ringling Boulevard and School Avenue in downtown Sarasota, with the new jail to be built where the CJC stands. That jail structure would include what staff has called the Correctional Reintegration Center, which would have 200 beds for inmates with less serious charges who need attention for mental health and/or substance abuse issues.
The other option, selected in late February, would include the site of a surface parking lot that the City of Sarasota owns north of the Sarasota Police Department, east of the Silvertooth Judicial Center, for use in a redesigned Criminal Justice Corridor. The latter is the term staff uses for the area of downtown Sarasota encompassing the jail, the Criminal Justice Center and the Judge Lynn Slivertooth Judicial Center on Ringling Boulevard. (The Criminal Justice Center also has a courtroom. In fact, during his Aug. 27 remarks, Sheriff Hoffman noted that he handled cases in that courtroom when he was the prosecutor for the Sheriff’s Office prior to his election in 2020 as the new sheriff.)
The city parking lot would be the location of the new Criminal Justice Center in that option, Deputy County Administrator Steve Botelho noted during the Feb. 25 discussion.
County Administrator Jonathan Lewis told the commissioners that a meeting has been scheduled for him and Botelho to talk about the parking lot with interim City Manager Dave Bullock. He added that he expects the discussion to focus on “what [city leaders] want” in exchange for letting the county use that space.
He also noted that it had taken some time for that meeting to be scheduled. (The Sarasota City Commission was on its summer break for the month of June.)
When Commissioner Knight asked Gaubatz about the loss of the Correctional Reintegration Center in the West Wing scenario, Gaubatz asked that Knight await the final results of the cost estimates that staff will have for the board members later this year.
“We really need to drill down,” Gaubatz said, in considering capacity and cost. “All of that would play in,” he added, indicating that he was referring to the Correctional Reintegration Center, as well.
Moreover, Gaubatz told Knight, the decision of the voters in the November 2026 referendum will be the major factor in determining how the county proceeds in planning for the number of beds in a new jail.
Nonetheless, at one point during the Aug. 27 discussion, Commissioner Mark Smith asked Gaubatz whether it would be a waste of time for the project team to consider looking at those other two options, with the sheriff’s having endorsed the concept of building the new jail on the site of the West Wing.
“By the time this jail opens,” Smith pointed out, “we’ll have 100 more folks sleeping in the hall. … I’m just concerned that [representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice] will insist we act [on providing more jail space]. That’s the urgency we’re under.”
Gaubatz told the commissioners, “One thing that could play out” is that Options 2 and 3 could end up being less expensive than anticipated, while the West Wing option could end up costing more. With the calculation of the cost estimates underway for those earlier options, Gaubatz said, keeping them in the mix would not slow down work on the West Wing proposal.