Kansas City is working towards building its own jail after it was announced in September that it could not reach an agreement with Jackson County to share facilities.
Now, a committee of city leaders led by 4th District-At-Large Council member Crispin Rea working on recommendations on how best to move forward with the Kansas City Jail. They aim to report to the full city council by January.
A series of community engagement sessions will be held in each of the city's six districts so Kansas Citians can voice their opinions on the size and location of the jail, along with the means of funding and the ratio of mental health to detention beds.
"Our task is going to be to synthesize the information we have that's very technical information — as you could imagine, a conversation about a jail can be very technical from design to regulations surrounding where it can be located, how you're going to fund it," Rea told KCUR's Up To Date. "To synthesize that down into information that folks can receive, digest and then give relevant and valuable input back."
"We want to make sure folks have the information that we have in a way that is meaningful and that they can respond to... so that we get the information from them that we need to make a decision."
- Kansas City Council member Crispin Rea, 4th District At-Large
