Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Houghton County Sheriff Brian McLean addressed members of the county’s jail task force and other community members at the task force’s organizational meeting Tuesday.

HOUGHTON — What would a new jail look like? Where would it be built? And what would county taxpayers approve?

Houghton County’s jail task force took the first steps towards answering those questions at its organizational meeting Monday night.

“The intent, of course, is to hopefully result in a proposal that we can sincerely and jointly support so that the voters of Houghton County will pass this and we can be proactive,” as opposed to reacting to a lawsuit or federal injunction, said County Commissioner Tom Tikkanen.

County Sheriff Brian McLean described the problems faced with the current jail. In recent months, the jail has averaged between 31 to 32 inmates, above its rated capacity at 28 (and above the 80 percent capacity that would considered full by corrections standards).

“Our six-man cells are big enough for four or five men, six at most,” he said. “When we toss extra mattresses in there, you’ve got eight or nine guys there in the middle of summer, tensions run high.”

In a recent summer, conditions led to 13 attempted suicides by inmates, McLean said. It also led to multiple corrections officers quitting.

County Administrator Eric Forsberg ran through a history of studies of problems at the jail and previous attempts to fix it.

The county first planned to build a $3.3 million facility with 34 beds for inmates and additional work release beds for the work camp. A voter initiative put the measure on the ballot, which failed.

A 2010 millage for a $15 million complex including a 110-bed jail, district court and sheriff’s department was also defeated. Last fall, voters narrowly rejected a proposal for a 55-bed addition behind the courthouse, with work camp beds relocated to the former jail space.

Conversation also centered on how to get the public on board with a proposal. The broad geographic and interest base of the task force can help it get input from the public on what it wants, said Valorie Troesch of the League of Women Voters of the Copper Country.

“I think that we need to go far and wide throughout the county … to get the kind of public input from which support can then be generated, when we have a proposal that we want them to buy into,” she said.

Calumet Trustee Virginia Dwyer, who worked at the jail for 20 years, suggested making a list of constraints with which the jail would need to comply under state law and Department of Corrections policy. That way, she said, the public would have a better idea.

As an aid to the task force, the county board hired U.P. Engineers & Architects to prepare 2019 cost estimates for four options: last year’s proposal; a new jail and sheriff’s office across Dodge Street; a new jail, sheriff and district court somewhere else within city limits (as well as an option for moving the entire county facility there); and Camp Kitwen, the former low-security prison shut down by the state in 2009.

Those estimates should be finished by the end of June, said Karin Cooper of U.P. Engineers & Architects.

“I think we all hope that it’s not just based on cost, but the most cost-effective for the county and the best solution,” she said.

To the consternation of county officials, the Camp Kitwen option has been a persistent suggestion by members of the public. The potential for expandability is one reason, audience members suggested Tuesday. Another is the desire not to waste a vacant facility.

“It’s the fact that the state went and built a facility, a nice facility, and then a few years later, it just sits there and rots,” said one attendee.

County officials pointed to numerous flaws with Kitwen as a facility. It’s built in a dormitory style, and would need to be reconfigured to cells, Tikkanen said. Along with the costs of renovating the facility after a decade of disuse, they also cited costs from Kitwen’s lagoon system.

“Trying to correct that ill that the state committed, I’m not sure it makes sense for Houghton county taxpayers to pour more money into a bad idea from the get-go,” Tikkanen said.

Under the state constitution, while the jail does not need to be located in the county seat, the sheriff’s office and courthouse do.

“You’re not going to change the constitution for Houghton County so you can put the courthouse in Camp Kitwen,” said 97th District Court Judge Mark Wisti. “That is not going to happen. You want the county courthouse in the county seat. It’s convenient for everybody.”

Having the jail and courthouse be separated would be “horribly inefficient,” McLean said. In addition to tying up staff, long waits for court hearings would also require a place to hold inmates.

While the county seat could be relocated, it would require everyone coming to that place to conduct county business, McLean said.

The same impulse to reuse an existing building is behind a newly popular suggestion, attendees said: the vacant ShopKo in Houghton.

Such talk is premature, said City Manager Eric Waara.

“ShopKo’s literally been closed for two weeks,” he said.

The building’s owners are actively marketing the site for retail, he said. Waara hoped to have more information by the end of the week, after a large retail convention where the building and other ShopKos in the Midwest will be presented.

Another suggestion for a regional jail also met with obstacles. For one, it is unclear whether state law permits them. Other local counties have also recently upgraded their jails, making them less likely to participate.

At a recent meeting of the Upper Peninsula jail administrators, Doug Hebner, jail administrator for Houghton County, brought up the possibility of a regional jail.

“They pretty much told me to sit down, and I’m the chairperson,” he said. “They said it won’t happen.”

No date for the next task force meeting was announced, but it will occur sometime after Cooper prepares cost estimates for the four options, County Board Chairman Al Koskela said.