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At today’s meeting, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to scrap the county’s long-planned jail expansion and rehabilitation project due to funding constraints. 

The proposed four-story facility, known as the “Community Corrections Re-Entry Resource Center,” would have housed a 44-bed minimum-security unit and rehabilitation services for current inmates, as well as out-of-custody re-entry programming to help formerly incarcerated individuals successfully transition back into society. The center would have also provided administrative spaces for the county’s Day Reporting Center and Probation Department, the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

“The concept of the project was that there would be minimum security housing for guests that were being ready to be released, as well as training rooms and … programs to help offenders stay out of jail,” said Jake Johnson, the county’s construction manager for capital projects. “But also, to provide programs on kind of an ‘outpatient’ basis for people to come back … and learn skills and learn how to interview for jobs.”

Sheriff William “Billy” Honsal said the resource center would have helped free up space in the jail for higher-security inmates who, prior to California’s Criminal Justice Realignment legislation, AB 109 and AB 117, would have been sent to state prison.

Honsal | Screenshot

“There’s been a huge impact on our county jail,” he said. “County jails are designed for those public nuisance type issues [and] misdemeanors that were never meant to serve beyond one year in county jail. … But as we’ve seen across the state with public safety realignment is that severe, serious and violent felonies and … offenses are being sentenced to county jails for longer than a year, and our county jails are not designed to house people beyond a year.”

In 2015, the county was awarded $20 million from the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) to build the new resource center. The county selected Chico-based architectural and engineering firm Nichols, Melberg, & Rossetto to draw up the designs for the project, which then went to various state agencies for an extensive review process. 

In February 2023, the Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to put the project – estimated at $22 million – out for bids. A few months later, the county received a base bid of $34.9 million – approximately $13 million over budget – from Woodland-based general contractor Broward Builders, Inc. 

“So given that number, we had some internal discussions with the [County Administrative Office] … and it was determined that the money for awarding that bid was just not available at the time,” Johnson said. “We talked to our designers and we tried to see if there is a way that we could reimagine the project and redesign it to get us back down into our budget.”

They looked at the possibility of scaling down the center and making it “more of a halfway house scenario,” Johnson said, but doing so would have changed the “scope” of the project and risk the $20 million funding award. “The costs were still going to be about $9 million that we would need to add to the project to make this work.”

Johnson presented several options to the board but ultimately recommended that the board reject the aforementioned bid and terminate the project.

Supervisor and Board Chair Rex Bohn asked what would happen if the board opted to redesign the project, noting that there are “other counties that are sitting on the same problem that we’re having.”

Honsal said he wrote a letter to state Senator Mike McGuire’s Office requesting additional state funding but was unsuccessful. “Unfortunately, where the state is right now, you know, we’re not going to probably get any kind of relief that way,” he said. 

Supervisor Steve Madrone thanked Honsal for making the board’s decision a little easier, but noted that “it certainly doesn’t solve the issue of reentry.”

“[S]o many people out there in our community actually respond pretty well to being in a program where there are sideboards … even if they’re incarcerated,” Madrone continued. “I absolutely believe in that concept – and I know we don’t have nearly enough of it – but I don’t see how we come up with [the funds] to make this happen. … I appreciate all the hard work to try and look at every avenue to try and do this.”

Supervisor Natalie Arroyo acknowledged that the county has already spent approximately $2.3 million on the project. “Have any of those [funds gone toward] site preparation work or anything … that can be used in the future? Or on-site studies or anything like that?” she asked. “I’m trying to find a silver lining here.”

Honsal said some of the money went toward brownfield studies and lot line adjustments. “Let’s just say, [if] money became available for mental health facility and we co-located the Day Reporting Center and a mental health facility, that could be a possibility for that location,” he said.

Arroyo made a motion to move forward with staff’s recommendation to terminate the project. The motion was seconded by Supervisor Michelle Bushnell who thanked staff for their time spent on the plans.

The motion passed 4-0, with Supervisor Mike Wilson absent.

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Check back tomorrow for more coverage of today’s Board of Supervisors meeting.