Local Jail Facility

Citizens of Livingston County, Missouri,

With the construction of Chillicothe Police Department's new facility beginning soon, I would like to personally address some of the feedback and comments I have heard and seen in reference to jail facilities.

The old Livingston County Jail officially closed at the end of 2012 for a variety of reasons including expensive building repairs, staffing issues and standards passed by the Federal Government, specifically P.R.E.A. (Prison Rape Elimination Act). Livingston County currently houses pre-trial detainees, those sentenced to jail time and change-of-venue detainees primarily at the Caldwell County Detention Center in Kingston and houses a few detainees at Daviess-Dekalb Regional Jail in Pattonsburg, by contracts approved by me and signed by the Livingston County Commission. Our office has an excellent working relationship with both facilities and communicate regularly to maintain operations and ensure detainees are properly cared for. Budgetarily, housing costs exceeded one million dollars in 2024, and we are tracking to do so again in 2025. While one million dollars is a significant amount, it pales in comparison to the tens of millions of dollars it would cost to construct a new jail facility here in Livingston County. Staffing issues plague the entire nation and would be a major obstacle to successfully operating a local jail facility as it would likely require around 20 full-time employees to staff a medium bed count facility like the original jail. Another factor to consider would be our average daily population, which averaged over 50 last year and will likely be similar for this year.

The following quote provides further context on this issue and is from Presiding Livingston County Commissioner Ed Douglas.

"We often get asked why we don't just build a jail here in Livingston County. We don't because our cost is still much cheaper than it would be with a new jail. As an example, Jackson County is in the process of building a new 1000-person jail for $300,000,000. Let's divide this by 10 for a 100-person jail that gives us an estimated cost of $30,000,000 for a jail the size our county would need. This of course requires a vote of the people. If this were passed, interest cost would probably be an estimated $1,200,000 per year. Principal payments might be another $1,000,000 (1/30th of $30,000,000). Additionally, we would have to hire another estimated 20 officers at an estimated cost of $60,000 per person including salary and benefits for a total of another $1,200,000 per year. Furthermore, I haven't included food, utilities, insurance and other expenses. With this analysis, we believe that our current arrangement is much less expensive to the County than the alternative."

In short, a local jail facility is not feasible at this time, but I remain hopeful that plans for a new facility may be re-examined sometime in the future for the benefit of our community.

Thank you for your continued support,

-Sheriff Dustin Woelfle