Following several incidents involving Kansas City, Missouri, inmates housed at the Heartland Center for Behavioral Change, officials are nearing a deal to house those inmates elsewhere.
A spokesperson for Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas says the mayor and Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forte are nearing a deal that would allow the city to resume sending roughly 100 inmates to the Jackson County Jail.
“Our offices are actively discussing terms, and we hope to begin moving inmates within the next several months,” Lucas said in a statement.
While Lucas says the agreement is a step in the right direction. he acknowledges it will not solve the long term jail issues but rather address the short term emergency at hand.
"I think right now it's fair for the public to say what's going on? When you have a jail where people are walking out, where there's been a fatality, where there have been just lots of issues and week-to-week there are new concerns," Lucas said.
The city stopped sending inmates to the county jail in June after negotiations between the city and county stalled.
The stalled negotiations prompted the city to house its inmates at the Heartland Center. In September, officials at the center said they wished they had done a better job learning what types of inmates they would be receiving.
Despite the tentative agreement, the city plans to still send some inmates to Heartland as it fufills it's contractual obligation with the city.
"You can't just build buildings and kinda say alright we're going to lock the door and hope everything works out," Lucas said.
According to Lucas, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office will asses the state of the old jail and how much it could cost to start moving inmates, but so far no price tag has been announced.
Lucas will meet with Forte and the Major of Corrections next week and hopes to have a resolution by Thanksgiving.
