Baltimore will soon have a new jail, which is expected to be the most expensive state-funded project in history. According to the Baltimore Banner, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services is moving forward with plans to build the $1 billion Baltimore Therapeutic Treatment Center.
All about Baltimore’s new $1 billion jail
The old detention center will be replaced by a hybrid jail, hospital, mental health, and substance use treatment facility.
The $1 billion project’s cost will be spread over more than five years, with completion expected in 2029. Once completed, the operating costs are expected to exceed $100 million a year.
The facility costs $443 million more than the corrections department’s initial estimates. It is being attributed to supply chain issues and inflation. A nonpartisan legislative analysis referred to the plan as “the most expensive state-run project in Maryland history.”
The state claims it requires the new facility to comply with a 2016 settlement of a decades-long lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of health care in Baltimore jails. The lawsuit is ongoing, and the corrections department has yet to fully comply with any of the agreement’s nine provisions.
Civil rights groups suing the city over bad conditions questioned whether a new building would address the issues
However, civil rights groups suing the city over those conditions questioned whether a new building would address the issues that have caused the state to deviate from the terms of the settlement.
They argue that the state’s shortcomings in medical and mental health care stem from the complexities of running a health-care system rather than the physical limitations of the buildings. Meanwhile, the number of beds proposed for the jail has been reduced due to cost, from 1,462 to 854.
The downsizing comes as Baltimore’s jail system is already overcrowded. According to census data provided by civil rights organizations, its facilities have been nearly full of the system’s 959 beds in recent months. The population has remained between 800 and 900 people. A recent estimate was 884 people, or 92% capacity.
David Fathi, director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project and a plaintiff in the health-care lawsuit, described Baltimore’s jail system as a “train wreck of dysfunction.”