The renovation process at the Johnson County Jail and Sheriff’s Office will soon begin and is estimated to be complete by the end of 2025.
These renovations have been a long time coming since the first steps were taken in August 2023. Most recently, the Johnson County Board of Supervisors approved $280,000 of the estimated $3.3 million needed for necessary repairs.
The county jail first opened in 1981 and has had only minor renovations since then. The crumbling building is also over capacity with its design for 46 inmates and 50 staff members.
These new renovations will include a new roof, a new heating system, a ventilation system, air conditioning, exterior doors, and drainage systems. Johnson County has partnered with Axiom Consultants Firm to make these renovations possible. These renovations will also save the county funds in the long run.
Since June 2024, the county has spent over $115,000 on repairs to the jail alone. Due to the small size of the jail, Johnson County often has to pay to house inmates outside the county, costing an average of $387,000 a year.
The Johnson County Jail already spends a lot of funds to house inmates out of the county. A report published by the Sheriff’s Office in January 2024 revealed that between January 2003 and December 2023, a running total of $15.8 million had been spent on housing inmates in different counties.
Now that the Johnson County Board of Supervisors has approved the amount needed, renovations are set to begin in the next few months. Johnson County Sheriff Brad Kunkel said the process began back in 2022 after a facilities audit was done on all county buildings.
“That study determined that the building was at the end of its life and should soon be demolished. That following year, we had our annual jail inspection, and they reported some of the same issues brought up in the original audit. We then hired Axiom Consulting, and they did their assessment of the building and that led us to the project we are doing now,” he said.
These evaluations proved the building is out of date and highlighted areas that need the most work, such as the infrastructure and the roofing. Dave Curtis, Johnson County facilities director, said he was in the driver’s seat for this project.
“I make sure the contracts are in place, and the work will actually get done [on the jail],” he said. “I’m not hands-on but rather an instigator. I started the building envelope condition, which really has two phases; the first one was investigation … We came back with that report and presented it to the board with a price tag of estimated repairs. We’re now waiting on the board to approve phase two, which is design.”
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The design process will kick off once the board approves the renovation costs. Axiom Consultants is the engineering firm involved with these renovations. Rob Decker is both the project manager and engineering lead for this project.
There is not an official timeline yet, but Axiom has an estimated finish date in mind.
“Right now, I would anticipate that we’d finish up early Spring 2026,” Decker said. “Ideally, they would like to be done by the end of 2025, but with the lead times and volatility of equipment availability. I think Spring 2026 is more realistic.”
Iowa law requires the board of supervisors for a specific county to be in charge of providing the jail and its renovations.
“The county jail is a responsibility of the county government under state law, so the funds come out of their budget. The board actually approved the second spending amount [for the jail] yesterday, but the funds won’t be in the budget until July 1,” Kunkel said.
Although these renovations are long overdue, they could disrupt inmates and employees in the building once it starts. There will likely be scenarios where inmates will have to be housed out of Johnson County due to the changes to the office and jail.
“This has been discussed, but when it comes to the roof project if they have to do it in pieces at a time, we will have to clear out sections of the jail for the duration of that part of the project,” Kunkel said. “It will disrupt operations if we have to house more inmates out of the county. It might make sense to do [the renovations] all at once, but if that’s the case, all the inmates in the building will have to be housed out of county for the project. This would take a lot of work and scheduling.”