Boone County Jail is ‘busting at the seams’; sheriff says solution is passing Proposition L
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Boone County Jail is overcrowded, and it’s costing the county millions to house detainees in other county jails across the state.
Sheriff Dwayne Carey’s solution is to pass a 3/8-cent sales tax to build a new jail that would be more than twice the size of the current jail.
The current jail has 246 beds but can only hold about 200 people because of logistics, but there are about twice as many people as that detained. If Proposition L passes in November, it would allow the county to start building a 570-bed jail that can expand to 990 beds.
Proposition L and the proposed jailCarey said the county expects to spend more than $4.6 million on housing detainees in jails outside of the county, a move that has climbed in cost over the last several years.
In 2022, the county spent $499,000 on out-of-county housing. Last year, the county spent about $2.5 million, a large jump compared to 2024, when the county spent $900,000.
2023: $800,000 2024: $900,000 2025: $2.5 million 2026: projected over $4.6 million
Carey said some detainees are sent to 14 counties in Missouri as far away as Carter and Greene counties — both hours away.
A “yes” vote on Proposition L would allow collection of the tax to start in March, and the county would be able to access that fund in June.
Carey said it’s estimated to bring in about $17 million annually, and the tax is set to expire at the end of 2042. It’s expected to bring in about $255 million over the 15 years the tax is in place, but the jail will only cost an estimated $90 to $100 million to build.
The county will have to borrow the money through a bond, and Carey said debt repayment is about $10 million. The county will also have increased operating costs for the new jail because of its size and capacity. Carey also said he wants to save some of that money in case an add-on is needed.
Funding will also have to come from the county’s general revenue fund. If passed, it will take about three to four years for the new jail to open.
“Actually, the $255 (million) might not even be enough, and people have a hard time understanding that, because they’re looking at a big number, but over a 15-year span,” Carey said.
Carey said the cost of materials, food and medical care could increase, making it an even more expensive project.
“We’re basing the $90 to $100 million price off of today’s pricing,” Carey said.
If Proposition L doesn’t pass, Carey said the county will have to cut budget.
“It’s going to be bad. We’re going to be looking probably at some budget cuts at the county level. Again, when you’re talking about $4.6 to $5 million coming out of general revenue to pay for that (out-of-county housing), all county offices are going to suffer from that,” Carey said.
Carey is also concerned about where to send people, as county jails across the state fill up or refuse Boone County detainees.
The new jail
If approved, Boone County Sheriff Dwayne Carey plans to build the new jail on county-owned land just north of the current facility.
Carey is planning to build the jail near the current one at 2121 County Drive, between the Boone County Fire Protection District Training Center and the Robert L. Perry Juvenile Center. It will go on a 93-acre plot of county-owned land.
He wants to have medical, mental health and reentry wings. Those programs are stunted in the current jail.
“We have one exam bed for 200 people, which is basically a walk-in closet,” Carey said. “Being able to add some actual hospital beds, more ADA-compliant than we are now, but having them all in that one housing unit to where we can do therapy, we can do treatment, we can get them, for lack of a better term, regulated.”
The new jail was also designed to add three separate wings that each have 140 beds if maximum capacity is reached. The new jail has the capacity to add 420 beds after the main 570-bed building is built.
There would also be a mental health and reentry service building that is offset from the main jail.
The proposed plan for a new Boone County Jail. Courtesy of the Boone County Sheriff’s Office.
Opposition forms as county stresses need
Susan Maze, a member of the group No New Jail, said she’s against the new jail because there have been no answers on why the number of detainees has increased, causing the overcrowding problem.
“The sheriff says that there’s a variety of things, but in the county commission meeting originally, they said it was mental health issues and the state taking longer, or the courts taking longer to get cases pushed through. Well, the new jail will not fix either of those things,” Maze said.
The new jail would expand the limited services that are already in place. Mental health manager Anita Kiessling-Caver already has an idea of what an expansion of services would look like in the new facility.
“What I would like to see happen as that program becomes developed, is that there’s a program that is specific to meet the individual needs of each person who is mentally ill, that we’ll be able to have programs or programming that is specific to their needs,” Kiessling-Caver said.
She said services in the current jail are the best given the space and resources.
“I don’t think the general public realizes how hard we work to help those folks,” Kiessling-Caver said. “I think that there’s concern that we’re not treating people well that are mentally ill or have emotional problems that are severe that lead them to get in trouble, and that’s just not true.”
People who are struggling with severe mental illnesses need to be separated from other detainees, and they can take up one cell that has two beds in it. In the new jail, there is a wing that will have single-bed cells for people who need to be kept alone.
Reasons for increasing inmate numbersIn July, the Prison Policy Initiative looked at how the Boone County Jail population changed between 2022 and 2026 after a request from No New Jail. The group ran the study at no charge.
The Prison Policy Institute is a national non-profit that researches criminal justice reform and over-criminalization, according to its website. The organization works with local advocates to stop elected officials from building or expanding jails or prisons.
The institute suggested the growing numbers are related to more people being detained without bond.
Only a judge can set bond, and Carey said he has to accept detainees.
“I wish we had less people in jail also. I mean, because it would make our life a lot easier,” Carey said. “We’re a larger county, I think the fifth or sixth largest in the state, and it just ballooned on us, and we have to do something to address it, and the new jail is the answer for us.”
Boone County Prosecutor Roger Johnson addressed why there are more people being held without bond in an email to ABC 17 News. He said that serious cases have increased since 2022, which could be one factor.
He gave these examples:
A and B felonies: 163 charges filed in 2022, and 250 in 2026 Felony assualt: 477 charges filed in 2022 and 616 in 2025 Domestic assault: 449 charges filed in 2022 and 692 in 2025Johnson said this, combined with a 2019 Missouri Supreme Court rule change that makes it more difficult to receive a high cash bond for dangerous crimes, has contributed to fewer cash-only bonds and more no-bond warrants.
The prosecutor’s office has also been more aggressively pursuing jury trials for violent crimes, Johnson said.
“We now try roughly three times as many jury trials as we did in 2022. Cases for trial take longer than cases resolved by agreement. To reverse that trend, we would have to make weaker recommendations, which would affect public safety,” Johnson said.
The Columbia Police Department’s roleCarey said the Columbia Police Department has also contributed to the rise in inmates.
CPD opened its police academy in late 2024 and added more officers to the streets. Carey said CPD increased the number of bookings at the sheriff’s department by 600.
“With increased number of officers, increased number of traffic stops, that means more warrants you’re getting, more drugs you’re getting, more guns you’re getting out of cars and the more criminal activity that you’re coming across while you’re doing that,” Carey said.
In August, Columbia voters approved a public safety sales tax that would generate about $38 million a year for the CPD and the Columbia Fire Department.
Carey is concerned that the current jail won’t be able to keep up with another increase in CPD officers if a new jail isn’t built.
“It’s going to create an issue,” Carey said. “We’re already in crisis, and they haven’t started hiring all of these cops, but when they do, it’s going to create a mess for us here. I mean, we’re already busting at the seams. We will rupture, and then I don’t know where we’re going to house at that point.”
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