Jackson County Detention Center

Kansas City officials have said the bulk of the money generated by the quarter-cent public safety sales tax will go toward a new municipal detention center.

Marquis Wagner died two years ago after being handcuffed and placed in a restraining chair, according to a lawsuit filed in Jackson County Circuit Court. Guards allegedly ignored Wagner's pleas of "I can't breathe."

A letter from Mayor Quinton Lucas to Jackson County cited high costs as one of the main reasons the city will pursue an independent jail facility, ending months of talks with county officials.

The county gave Kansas City officials a Sept. 15 deadline to decide if the city will share its facility.

The legislature must either lock in the price before its deadline, build a smaller jail or ask voters to approve a tax to cover higher costs.

The group designing and building the jail says it's held the line on costs as long as they possibly can. But a new majority in the Jackson County legislature has other ideas for what a new jail should look like — or if one should be built at all.

Up To Date spoke with Jackson County Executive Frank White and Legislators Jalen Anderson and Jeanie Lauer about their commitment to reintroduce an ordinance that would ban anti-gay "conversion therapy" on minors.

Rejecting a consultant’s recommendation that would save money and delays, Jackson County officials said Tuesday the county is open to sharing space and services at the site of the new detention center already being built on the city’s eastside.

Mayor Quinton Lucas says the county cited costs in turning away a proposal to add a municipal jail to the $256.5 million Jackson County Detention Center. Now the city and county are spending “half a billion dollars on two jails potentially across the street from each other,” Lucas said.

Sheriff Darryl Forté has pointed to a nonexistent provision in Missouri's new voting law to limit voter registration efforts inside the Jackson County jail, where hundreds of detainees are potentially eligible voters. Missouri's voter registration deadline is Oct. 12.

The cases concerned a 2019 policy that required women to remove their underwire bras when entering the Jackson County Detention Center.

Legislators had been concerned with what they said was a lack of transparency about the new detention center.