Challenge: The Jackson County Commissioners wanted an economical solution to house the growing number of juvenile offenders in the county as well as increase adult jail capacity. Due to ACA regulations prohibiting juveniles from being housed with adults, the county was faced with the daunting challenge of building a new jail and converting the existing jail into a juvenile detention facility. The county selected RQAW | DCCM to find the most viable and cost-effective solution to their challenge.

Solution: After conducting a long-range feasibility study, RQAW | DCCM developed several options for the county. The first and most economical option demonstrated the viability of combining both juvenile and adults within the same facility while accommodating the ACA regulations by creating complete sight and sound separation between the two distinctly different classification types. The advantage of combining both juveniles and adults into the same facility is the economy and efficiency created by the sharing of support services such as administrative offices, food service, laundry, mechanical systems and the general economy of scale of building a single facility in lieu of two separate facilities. The facility is located on a portion of a 90-acre site located 4 blocks from the county courthouse. The site allows easy future expansion of this facility as well as accommodating over 100 parking spaces for staff and public. The Jackson County Jail and Juvenile Center is truly unique in the respect that it is the first facility approved by the Indiana Dept. of Corrections to house both adults and juveniles within the same facility in over a decade. The design of the 54,000 square foot facility has proven to be a success for the county and will serve the county’s needs for years to come.