The Dane County Board of Supervisors voted 32-5 to approve additional borrowing of just over $10 million to fully fund the six-story jail consolidation project approved in 2020.
The vote comes a day after the County Board Black Caucus and Sheriff Kalvin Barrett announced they’d come to an agreement in which the caucus would support the funding and the sheriff would support reforms to reduce the jail population and improve the quality of life for those in custody.
Earlier in the meeting Thursday, the board approved a resolution ending the practice of housing federal inmates in the Dane County Jail by November 1, one of the provisions of the agreement. This will reduce the jail population by about 50 people, or six percent, and allow Dane County residents currently housed in other counties’ jails to come back.
Other provisions of the agreement include an end to solitary confinement, support for mental health services outside the jail including a mental health court, and support for alternatives to incarceration for young people.
The current jail project was approved in 2020, but cost overruns, supply chain issues and inflation necessitated additional funding.
The members of the Black Caucus — Supervisors April Kigeya, Dana Pellebon, Anthony Gray and Jacob Wright — proposed a smaller, five-story facility that would come in under the original budget. That proposal was rejected by the board, but passed as an amendment to the county budget. It was then vetoed by County Executive Joe Parisi.
The resolution to fund the six-story jail required a three-fourths vote of the board. Supervisors Mike Bare, Heidi Wegleitner, Analiese Eicher, Kierstin Huelsemann and Yogesh Chawla voted no.
