The $49 million expansion and renovation of Charlottesville’s jailhouse is once again facing pushback from opponents who say it is a waste of money that would be better spent on social services.
The city already has spent $4.5 million on the project through design contracts alone, and if City Council were to reverse course now, that money would be lost.
“That’s a sacrifice that I’m willing to take,” Harold Folley, a civil rights and racial justice organizer with the Charlottesville-based Legal Aid Justice Center who is part of a group called the People’s Coalition, told The Daily Progress.
The coalition, whose mission is to “oppose the unjust and racist criminal-legal system," has fought for the past two years to block the renovations to the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.
That fight has taken the form of public comments before Council, community forums and, on Monday, a rally in front of City Hall.
About 25 demonstrators came holding signs reading, “Can’t get well in a cell” and “Care, not cages.”
Rosia Parker, a longtime civil rights activist in the city and one of the coalition’s founders, told The Daily Progress she knew of the jail’s “deplorable condition” firsthand as someone who had seen it from inside. Like many others in the coalition, she said, she is not against the project, just the high cost.
Most of the current facility at 160 Peregory Lane south of city limits dates back to 1975 and falls short of jail building codes and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The cells are too small, there are not enough toilets or showers, there are problems with humidity and ventilation, and even reports of rat infestations.
The expansion and renovation was first presented to the community with three tiers of options, escalating in cost and scope. The first tier was $25 million, the second $34 million and the third $49 million.
Parker said she was in favor of the first tier, which would have addressed basic concerns.
But according to Martin Kumer, the jail’s superintendent, the only cost-effective way to bring the jail up to standards is to tear down some parts and rebuild — the third tier.
Although it’s been billed as an expansion, Kumer told The Daily Progress he wished another word had been used since the project would only increase square feet and not inmate capacity. The jail’s population is the lowest it’s been in decades, despite an uptick in the past two months bringing the total number of inmates a little more than 300. The jail’s current capacity is 329.
“I wish we could just call it a quality improvement project, because that’s really what it comes down to,” Kumer said.
But Folley said Kumer is intentionally misleading the public, likening him to one of the "sweet-talking" vampires from the recent hit film "Sinners."
“He knows how to sway things to make it seem like there’s not a problem,” Folley said.
Folley and others have questioned why the jail does not just use its wing that was renovated in 2000, since the plan is to use it to house inmates during the expansion process.
But using that section is a temporary and less-than-ideal situation because it was designed to house low-level offenders, Kumer said. To safely house the current inmate population, many of whom are higher risk, additional staff would have to be hired to patrol the more open layout of the 2000-era wing.
“It’s like taking high schoolers and putting them in elementary school,” Kumer said.
And even that “newer” section is still outdated and has required renovations to make it wheelchair-accessible before August, when construction begins and inmates are transferred into it.
The budget for the project, which will total more than $73 million, including interest from loans, is split between the city of Charlottesville and counties of Albemarle and Nelson relative to the average number of inmates from each jurisdiction. The state will reimburse 25% of the cost, and Charlottesville will pay about $1 million per year for the next 28 years.
At Monday’s rally, Folley handed out fake $1 million checks to people from local social services organizations to symbolize what could be done instead with that money if it was invested in their work.
Folley and others within the People’s Coalition said the funds could be easily redistributed, because in the 2025-26 budget the funding for the jail expansion and renovation was listed under “Outside and Nonprofit Agency Partnerships” and appeared to draw from the Vibrant Community Fund, which typically awards money to community organizations related to education, health and the arts.
This was a clerical error because the jail project is a capital expenditure and will be financed using debt issued by the jail board, according to a statement from City Hall.
With this in mind, it would not be as easy to redistribute the money to local nonprofit groups as opponents have called for.
And it is too late in the game to stop the planned expansion now, according to both Charlottesville City Councilor Lloyd Snook and Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston. Council heard arguments about the expansion last spring, and a majority agreed on the third-tier expansion plan. The city also has already sent out bids to construction contractors and will hear back from them by the end of the month.
“We’ve already made the substantive decision,” Snook told The Daily Progress. “Now we just have to agree to write the check, and there’s not really an opportunity at this point to revisit the decision.”
Undeterred, the People’s Coalition plans to return for public comment at Council’s meeting on June 2.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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