Greene County leaders, Springfield council members and the sheriff announced Friday afternoon they have reached a long-awaited jail agreement.
It means a contentious two-year-old lawsuit between the city and county will be dropped.
It means the Greene County Sheriff's Office will begin to, once again, take responsibility for inmates arrested on municipal charges.
It means cash-strapped Greene County will ask voters to pass a sales tax hike in the coming months.
City and county officials have been working for two years in closed meetings to negotiate a way forward after they publicly butted heads over Sheriff Jim Arnott's decision to close the Greene County Jail to people arrested on municipal charges.
Together, they have created an addendum to a 1997intergovernmental agreement, which was the basis of the lawsuit.
The details were announced during a surprise press conference held at the Public Safety Center at 2 p.m. Friday.
Mayor Ken McClure and Arnott huggedeach other in front of photographers and TV cameras. Smiling Arnott was also photographed with his arm thrown around the shoulder of Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams.
The message was one of reunification and collaboration.
McClure said, "I'm pleased, on behalf of the city, to be part of this. It's been a long time coming but it was necessary to work through all of these issues."
Presiding Commissioner Bob Cirtin said, "When many people thought we were not doing anything, we were always doing something."
The new document calls for the Greene County Sheriff's Office to take over transporting Springfield inmates, up to 35 a day. The city of Springfield will continue paying another county to house municipal inmates for the time being.
If a sales tax hike is passed in Greene County, part of the revenue will be used to expand the jail. Within three years, the sheriff would begin guaranteeing 48 beds for Springfield inmates a day in the county jail at no additional cost.
If the city’s level property tax renewal and a county sales tax hike are both approved by voters, the city will contribute $2 million over 10 years towards expanding the jail.
All parties will revisit the agreement regularly beginning in 2027. If a consensus can’t be reached to continue or renegotiate the agreement, it will expire on December 31, 2037 and future proceeds from the 1997 law enforcement sales tax will be paid into a third-party escrow account until the parties execute a written extension agreement.
Friday morning, representatives from all parties requested for a judge in Rolla to approve the mutually agreed upon addendum. The judge signed a consent decree to effectively dismissthe lawsuit.
Cirtin emphasized that the agreement is only "a short-term fix."
"We can no longer apply a Band-Aid to this problem — to therising inmate population and inadequate facilities that we have here in Greene County," Cirtin said. "We need a comprehensive approach that slows the growth of jail population."
Arnott said there were 796 inmates in the Greene County judicial system as of Friday. The local jail capacity is 601. He expects the average daily population to rise by 60 to 100 each year.
McClure spoke about the importance of looking at larger issues such as domestic violence, drug abuse, mental health and improving the efficiency of the criminal justice system.
Cirtin said more details of a jail study will be available next week sayingjail size will need to be at least doubled.
The saga over the jail began two decades ago. Here's a timeline of events.
1997:The first county-wide Law Enforcement Sales Tax is passed by voters. It promises a new combined city and county jail as well as additional officers for Greene County and the city of Springfield.
1999:Construction begins on the new Greene County Jail. The oldest part of the previous jail — constructed in 1936 — is demolished.
2001:Jail construction is completed. The jail was originally built to hold 500 inmates. The fire code tops out capacity at 522. In general, the sheriff's office tries to keep jail capacity at no more than 545. When first planned, the jail was projected to meet the county's needs for 10 years.
November 2003:Jail population reaches capacity for first time.
December 2003:Jail population surpasses capacity for first time.
2008:Jail population exceeds 600.
2009 and 2010:The population returns to a daily average of 500.
2011 and 2012:Jail population again on the rise. The county pays $155,082 in 2011 and $139,620 in 2012 to hold inmates at other county jails.
Also in 2012:Voters pass a second Law Enforcement Sales Tax, which funds new jailers, among other staffing needs in the county's justice system.
December 2013:Although good signs come at the beginning of the year, jail hits new record in December: 717.
2014:Remodeled with available funds, the jail is able to squeeze in another 92 inmates. The jail routinely houses 600 to 640 inmates, with a few dozen housed at other jails in southwest Missouri — at a cost to the county.
January 2015:Sheriff Jim Arnott told the News-Leader the true long-term answer is an expansion of the jail but he acknowledged that solution was not financially realistic. "There are studies that show we really need a 1,200-bed jail," he said, which would be more than double the size of the current jail. "And we should be looking at expanding to 1,800."
April 2015: Sheriff Jim Arnott announced he will no longer accept people arrested on municipal charges. Arnott has said he would no longer release people arrested on serious crimes while the jail holds people on relatively minor municipal violations.
July 2015: The city sues Arnott and the county commission, arguing the sheriff broke the 1997 intergovernmental agreement that called for the county to house municipal inmates.
2016: The city allocated $500,000 for sendingmunicipal inmates to other counties' jails and hiring private company Southern Missouri Judicial Services to transport them. The county spentabout $950,000on holding inmates at other several other county jails across Missouri.
