MASON, Mich. — The new $80 million, 170-000-square-foot Ingham County Justice Complex is under construction and should be complete by the end of the year. It will replace the 58-year-old Ingham County Jail and other county buildings.
"The entire complex includes the jail, the sheriff's office, training center, and emergency operations center," said Ingham County Capt. Robert Earle. "[It] also includes 55th District Court, which has two classrooms: magistrate and probation. So, it's actually three different buildings all in one."
Combining everything into one facility was done to avoid public confusion.
"Going from six different entrances from the 55th to the jail, to the training center to the law enforcement, emergency operations, our fleet, everybody has a separate entrance and they're on the far end of the building," Earle said. "So, when we have the public show up to get their CPL or register a firearm or PPO or visit their loved one that's in jail, it almost seems like they always end up at the wrong door."
The majority of the complex, about 100,000 square feet, will be the new jail. It will hold 418 inmates, slightly less than the current jail's capacity of 440 inmates.
"I think there's a lot of alternatives to incarceration," Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth said. "There's a lot more programming, a lot more ways to hold people accountable as opposed to just putting them in jail. I think the 418 number is a really good place for us to be over the next 30 to 40 years."
Wriggelsworth said the focus of the new facility is to increase operational efficiency.
"I mean, we still have cells that we operate with lock and key," Wriggelsworth said. "Everything would be digitized, electric in the new facility."
A millage to pay for the $80 million project was passed by Ingham County residents August 2018.
"The other thing the new facility is really going to help with is going to be how we house people that find themselves in jail," Wriggelsworth said. "Not that we're building the Taj Mahal or anything, but I think we're going to see better progress with the programming piece that we have."
The site of the current jail will become public parking.
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