Navigating jail needs: How Wold provides a comprehensive solution

The crucial purpose of a jail facility is to safely and securely detain those who are in custody while providing space for programs that help reduce recidivism and create better citizens. At Wold, we work with local governments to design jails where solutions can vary from adequately meeting state mandates to providing an emphasis on rehabilitation. Our company’s deep historical knowledge has helped us understand each client’s unique needs and challenges while advancing jail facility design over the past several decades. Our comprehensive and collaborative approach with stakeholders allows us to continue impacting communities across the country to create secure, well-structured and cost-efficient facilities.

Ensure all needs are met through a comprehensive jail assessment

Jails have unique needs based on the communities they serve, and our team is often tasked with assessing their goals for security, operational efficiency and creating humane spaces necessary to house detainees. Through our jail assessment process, we seek to understand the problems local governments encounter as they aim to renovate old facilities or create more modern infrastructure. Our team partners with administrators to study existing facility conditions, and through our assessments, we help county governments establish long-term plans that accommodate the unique needs of each community.

As communities grow and laws change, the incarceration rate can change as well, so we focus our assessment efforts on identifying both present and future needs. Jails must be equipped to process and house a fluctuating number of detainees each year, meet their basic needs, provide space for potential increased capacity and offer staff peace of mind that the facility is secure. Our process typically begins with Wold’s team of architects, mechanical engineers and electrical engineers visiting a facility to assess the current space utilization and evaluate the jail’s conditions. As we assess the space, we often identify many of the same challenges facilities across the country face, including:

• Facility deterioration: Jail facilities experience a unique level of wear and tear. Unlike other types of buildings, jails are subjected to continuous 24/7 operations and are often abused by their occupants, leading to accelerated deterioration. This constant use means maintenance and assessments are critical to ensuring the facility remains functional and safe.
• Overcrowding and inmate classification: As the general population grows and incarceration rates fluctuate, jails face a pressing need for additional bed space and appropriate classification of inmates. Effective jail design must ensure that beds are not just adequate in number but are also strategically allocated to accommodate different classifications. Separating inmates by sex, severity of offense or their affiliations with certain incidents or criminal organizations improves security and minimizes the risk of tension or further interpersonal complications once in custody.
• Operational shortages: A jail's location in relation to other justice system facilities is a critical factor in its operational model. Proximity to courthouses, law enforcement agencies and other related institutions can streamline the justice process and reduce transportation costs. Internally, the presence of safety and security risks is a significant concern that can affect both staff and inmates. Identifying these risks through comprehensive assessments paves the way to enhanced safety, such as improved surveillance systems and better-designed spaces that minimize conflict. Inherently, enhanced facility safety can lead to reduced reliance on overstaffing to compensate for poor facility safety.
• Necessary spaces to help reduce recidivism: While having enough beds is crucial, it alone does not contribute to improving the conditions in a community by reducing recidivism. Assessments should evaluate the availability of spaces for county-provided social services that can be offered to inmates both during incarceration and as part of the release process. The inclusion of spaces for diversionary programs during the booking process can also help keep individuals out of jail, enabling them to maintain their jobs, housing, and parenting responsibilities.

These problems often rise to the top of our assessments and impact the final outcomes and recommendations from our team. In conjunction with statistical findings, our team presents criminal justice stakeholders with options for getting the most out of their jail facilities. Through a holistic approach, we ensure that our designs support not only the physical needs of the facility but also the broader goal of reducing recidivism.

In a recent jail assessment we conducted for Carroll County, Ill., a community whose jail has been in continuous use for over 150 years, our research into the facility’s current capabilities highlighted that expanding the facility’s space would alleviate much of the strain on the jail’s operations, including increasing the area available for booking and intake and projecting future figures for housing needs. We worked with the sheriff’s office and an inmate housing committee to detail various potential outcomes for the jail as it continued to grow, including renovations with varying levels of expansion, constructing a new jail entirely or housing inmates out-of-county.

Equipping stakeholders with options leads to successful project outcomes. Our job is not to dictate what should happen in the communities we serve; rather, we share our findings from our assessments and allow our partners to determine the best course of action for their jail projects. Some administrators, such as Montrose County Jail in Colorado, may prefer to leverage the existing space and make structural improvements that ease the strain on jail operations. Others may see value in building a new, modern facility, as Koochiching County in Minnesota did, whose leaders engaged our team to renovate the county courthouse in conjunction with the construction of a new jail.

Part of our mission is to help stakeholders create new or upgraded infrastructure that serves them with stability today and can accommodate future needs. The long-term planning process requires jail administrators to investigate needs from all angles – space, operational costs and efficiency – which is why we share our expertise through assessments and the construction and renovation of impactful jail infrastructure. Our team is here to help you navigate the complexities of your jail projects with confidence. We invite you to read more about our jail design expertise and contact our team if we can be a resource.