Julia Williams
Julia Williams
Editor-in-Chief
On April 8, Kansas City voters passed ballot question 1: Capital Improvements Sales Tax – Public Safety, with 60% in favor to continue this existing City sales tax —which was enacted in 2010 — for an additional 20 years.
With one quarter cent of city sales tax allocated toward public safety, this renewal will include improvements to the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) and Emergency Medical Services (EMS). However, funds from this sales tax will additionally go toward the construction and establishment of a new municipal rehabilitation and detention center in Kansas City.
On Tuesday morning, April 22, Midtown KC Now — a nonprofit community and economic development agency, according to its website — Executive Director Kevin Klinkenberg joined the Northeast community at the Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce (2657 Independence Ave.) for its monthly “Tasty Topic Talk Luncheon” to further discuss this detention center following the election results and next steps for the City.
This Municipal Detention and Rehabilitation facility, which the City will now have the funds to build, is not a new concept for the City, but rather a replacement for its former Municipal Correction Institution (MCI) — also known as “The Farm” — which opened in 1971 near the Truman Sports Complex and closed in 2009.
Throughout its 38 years in operation, MCI held a capacity of 348 individuals who committed municipal offenses or ordinance violations ( traffic violations, trespassing, domestic violence, stealing, etc). However, when this facility closed in 2009, MCI entered a contract with Jackson County to hold offenders at the Jackson County Regional Correction Center (1300 Cherry St.), which decreased overall capacity to 260 detainees and ultimately reduced the number again to 160.
At this time, violators were also held on the eighth floor of KCPD Headquarters (1125 Locust St.), which allowed space for 100 offenders. In 2018, this eighth floor of Headquarters was closed to Ordinance Violators and instead, the City began a contract with Vernon and Johnson Counties to allow transportation of detainees from Jackson County to facilities 30 to 100 miles from Kansas City, with those facilities holding a 105 combined capacity.
While the eighth floor of Headquarters, as well as the new municipal detention center, can now begin reconstruction and building, costs are currently estimated upwards of $16 million to renovate the eighth floor of Headquarters and neither facility will be completed within the next year — a goal for many with Kansas City hosting the FIFA World Cup in June 2026.
Instead, Klinkenberg and Midtown KC Now have proposed a more immediate solution — a temporary modular detention facility.
This modular detention facility, Klinkenberg said, is a method which has been utilized in other Missouri counties including Springfield’s Greene County in Southwest, Mo.
Klinkenberg shared that a modular unit would need to be built on City-owned land, but once approved, could be up and running within three to six months, and serve as a Kansas City Municipal Detention and Rehabilitation Center, over the three to five years it takes for the official facility to finish construction.
As these modular units are able to be assembled on-site, Klinkenberg said in a presentation Tuesday, costs would be rather inexpensive and could expect to be around $1.8 million from City funding.
A modular facility could be rented or purchased from company suppliers and if rented, once an entity is finished using the structure, it would return to the company. However, if the modular is purchased by the City that modular could be sold or go on to additional uses including transitional housing.
Members of the Northeast community expressed their concerns at Tuesday’s luncheon with both this temporary option, the construction of the eighth floor of Headquarters and a new Municipal Detention Facility.
“[I] would prefer to have the details confirmed that [these facilities] would have those resources,” Independence Boulevard Christian Church (IBCC) Pastor Mindy Furgarino said Tuesday while discussing resources, which were available to offenders at the former MCI.
Klinkenberg had shared that The Farm previously had services for violators including mental health counseling, religious services, education courses and programs, medical care, etc. However, this new detention facility — which Kansas City will now have the funds to build from the Capital Improvement Public Safety Sales Tax — has not confirmed what services or resources it will offer for individuals, nor did Klinkenberg have proposed resources for the temporary, modular facility.
“A lot of people are stuck in negative cycles; They could be dangerous to themselves,” Furgarino said Tuesday. “With no place for them to be taken, a jail would have to have restorative intent.”
When asked about next steps for this temporary modular facility, Klinkenberg said an elected official (City Council) would need to sponsor an ordinance and take action.
For additional information on Midtown KC Now or on the City’s plans for the Municipal Detention Facility, visit: https://midtownkcnow.org/ or https://www.kcmo.gov/programs-initiatives/justice.
Dorri Partain
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