Structure would house West Wing inmates while construction of new correctional tower underway
The Sarasota County commissioners have directed county Capital Projects Department staff to proceed with planning for what the staff has characterized as a two-story, “provisional building” that would help ease overcrowding in the county jail before a new, eight-story correctional facility can be completed.
Then that building would be used to house inmates in the West Wing of the Correctional Campus in downtown Sarasota while the jail is constructed on the West Wing site, Brad Gaubatz, a project manager in the county’s Capital Projects Department, explained to the board members during their regular meeting on Feb. 10, which was held in Venice.
After the jail tower has been completed, that provisional building would remain in place for use as needed, Gaubatz added.
The construction of the new jail is contingent upon voters approving a referendum that the commissioners have agreed to place on the November 2028 General Election ballot.
The unanimous vote on the provisional building plans followed an approximately 40-minute discussion.
Former three-term sheriff Tom Knight — who was elected to the commission in November 2024 — made the motion, which included the direction for staff to come back to the board with more details about the potential bed count in the provisional building and possible funding sources for the project.
During the discussion, Gaubatz pointed out that the provisional building could be constructed for less than the Sarasota County Charter limit on the amount of a county bond issuance. That figure, reported to the board last year, is $30.5 million.
Chair Ron Cutsinger did ask Gaubatz about the potential of constructing a shell of a third floor within the provisional building, which could be finished at some point if the Sheriff’s Office needed that space for inmate beds, as well.
Cutsinger added that the proposed location — the former site of the county’s Central Energy Plant — is “right there at the [Correctional] Campus” in downtown Sarasota. “It’s a great location.”
Gaubatz responded that with the direction from the board to use the maximum budget afforded by the Charter cap on bonding, staff will ensure that the structure is designed to hold “as many beds as [we] physically can fit [in it],” given the logistical considerations of the Sheriff’s Office’s Correctional Division staff.
During his presentation that day, Gaubatz estimated that the provisional building potentially could include 90 beds. The Sheriff’s Office will need the ground level to serve as space for the inmate intake process, he added. However, he said, it is likely that the building could have a total of 90 beds, depending on how the first floor were configured. He did note that the beds would be constructed with a barracks design.
Ninety beds are in the West Wing, he added.
While the new jail facility is being constructed, Gaubatz reminded the commissioners, the West Wing inmates either will have to be held in the provisional building or transferred to other correctional facilities.
Gaubatz also explained that the proposed design of the provisional building would facilitate faster completion.
With the given budget, Gaubatz said, staff members “will see if we can impress you” with the number of beds.
Having decades of experience herself in the construction business, Commissioner Teresa Mast pointed out that if the foundation of the provisional structure were designed to accommodate three floors instead of the two Gaubatz had proposed, then “You can come back later and add height to it.”
“The constraint’s money,” County Administrator Jonathan Lewis pointed out. Taking into consideration the “max borrow” and the effect of the resulting debt service on future county budgets, Lewis continued, staff will work to make the most of the funding available.
‘Extremely challenged’
At the outset of his Feb. 10 presentation, Gaubatz introduced Capt. Debra Kiner of the Sheriff’s Office’s Corrections Services Bureau, to talk about the demands on the jail.
Kiner explained that the jail “must accept all arrestees” from law enforcement agencies in the county, including those of the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport Authority police and those of the Sarasota County School Board’s police. “We are extremely challenged to house all inmates in Sarasota County,” she continued, “due to our footprint and aging facilities.”
The jail is “approximately 300 beds short,” she added. “Due to maintenance and constant repairs, resulting in the loss of housing units,” she pointed out, “if our population goes up over 1,100, we may have to find alternative housing. If we are able to find another facility to house our inmates — and that’s a big if,” she stressed — “it would come with a huge financial burden.”
Kiner noted the replumbing of the North Wing pods, which began in June 2025, as an example of repair work with which the Corrections Bureau staff has had to contend.
She explained that inmates with lower custody levels, which typically are based on the charges against them, and fewer health and behavioral problems would have to be identified for transfer to other correctional facilities. Then, when they had to have court appearances, Kiner continued, they would have to be transported back and forth from the facility where they were being housed to a Sarasota County holding location.
“Based on our average daily cost to house an inmate,” Kiner told the commissioners, “we can estimate that it could cost taxpayers upwards of $200 a day per inmate.”
Commissioner Joe Neunder said he understood the $200 daily expense for housing an inmate does not include any medical or pharmacy considerations.
Housing 100 inmates elsewhere, Kiner added, could cost “approximately $7.3 million annually.”
When Commissioner Mast asked Kiner about the inmate capacity in the jail, Kiner said that 773 beds is the operational level. However, Kiner noted, the daily average for 2025 was 1,091. “We have been running, for several years now, [200] to 300 inmates over [that number],” Kiner added.
Further, Kiner reported, “Our average length of stay” is 126 days; she noted that most of the inmates are being held on felony charges. “That [figure] has risen a lot] since the COVID pandemic, she pointed out.
Continued focus on West Wing option
Gaubatz reminded the commissioners that, in late August 2025, they authorized staff to delve into the potential of building the new jail on the site of the West Wing in downtown Sarasota, which is the oldest part of the detention center complex.
That day, Gaubatz explained that “several collaborative workshops” had taken place since February 2025, 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 had proposed the West Wing option. With a temporary, “barracks-style” facility erected where the county’s Central Energy Plant once stood, Hoffman said, the inmates in the West Wing could be moved into building while the new jail was constructed.
That was a less expensive scenario, Gaubatz pointed out on Aug. 27, 2025, since a new Criminal Justice Center (CJC) would not be needed 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 part of his Feb. 10 presentation, Gaubatz showed the board members a slide that said the new structure on the site of the West Wing would have 816 beds spread over eight floors. If the 2028 referendum passes, he said, that building could be completed by the end of 2034.
Moreover, he noted, the estimate for the West Wing option is $354,042,700, compared to the expense of two other options that staff had researched, which included replacing the Criminal Justice Center. Both of those exceeded $560 million, and the new jail could not be completed until late 2035.
He emphasized, “There’s a significant amount of escalation and contingency in [the West Wing option estimate]. Almost a third … is escalation and contingency,” Gaubatz noted, since the project “is so far out.”
If funding were identified for the provisional building, Gaubatz continued, constructing it would take about three years, depending on how long staff had to work to get the necessary City of Sarasota permits, since the structure would be within the city limits.
Assuming that construction began in the 2027 fiscal year — which will start on Oct. 1 of this year — he said staff anticipates that Sheriff’s Office personnel would be able to move inmates into it by the end of 2029.
When Commissioner Knight asked whether the preliminary plans call for demolition of the provisional building after the new jail were completed, Gaubatz told him that would not be the case.
“I wouldn’t recommend any facility that would have to be torn down,” County Administrator Lewis told the board members.
Knight said he expected that the Sheriff’s Office staff would be happy to have that extra space in the provisional building, to provide “small relief” with beds until the new jail can be constructed.
Sheriff Hoffman “has been very supportive of a concept like this,” Lewis added, because it “provides some relief.”
“This is at least doing something,” Knight responded, even though “it’s not going to fix the larger problem.”
When Knight asked Capt. Kiner her thoughts on the proposal, she replied that the provisional building “will still be on our Correctional Campus …”
In response to a follow-up question from Knight about the plans for the barracks design, Kiner said, “That would be cool.”
Then Knight told his colleagues, “This is something that I would certainly support.”
Commissioner Mast added, “This is critical for us to move forward with … We are in dire straits now.” She also stressed, “If everything goes OK in 2028 [with the referendum],” it still would be another four years before the new jail were ready for use.