Building an entirely new jail would allow our community to confront hard questions about the purpose of pretrial detention. Simply put, a jail is generally meant to be for people who have been arrested and charged – but not convicted – of a crime. That means in the eyes of the law, someone who is held pretrial is innocent and should be afforded due process, including the right to an attorney and the right to see a judge.

To the degree that people are in the jail for any length of time, every effort should be made to understand and address underlying issues, such as addiction, mental health struggles, or other factors that may have contributed to their arrest in the first place. If rehabilitation is not a core function of the jail, it will only further destabilize the lives of the people who are eventually released from it, worsening a recidivism crisis that already destroys too many lives and damages too many neighborhoods. 

The current jail’s problems with persistent, dangerous overcrowding and an apparent inability to dependably move people from detention areas to medical care, courtrooms, or other places within the jail itself can and must be avoided. The design of a new jail should take into account the potential substance use disorders, mental health, and other issues that may be affecting the people held there. This kind of trauma-informed design means creating areas for intake, transfer, detention, and other services that are secure, appropriately separated, and large enough to adequately manage a jail population with complex medical needs. 

Similarly, the design of a new jail campus allows for the logical and efficient co-location of services that will produce better outcomes for everyone involved in the criminal justice system, including jail staff, attorneys, and magistrates and judges, as well as the people held in the jail and their families. Putting criminal courtrooms, bail assessment rooms, medical facilities, and other critical spaces in close proximity to the jail reduces costly and risky transfer times. Adding space for additional services, such as job training, continuing adult education, and substance abuse recovery, will allow people to reenter society more safely and productively, reducing recidivism and long-term cost burdens to taxpayers.