JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Duval County Jail could be on its way out of Downtown Jacksonville.
The push to relocate the jail is included once again in the city's Capital Improvement Plan that Mayor Lenny Curry outlined last week.
His budget estimates the 3,000-bed facility could cost more than $244 million. It would replace the current facility, but that money isn't coming any time soon. In fact, while the project is listed in the city's five-year fiscal plan, there's currently no funding until at least 2027.
“Anytime you don't have money programmed something to me, I would say it's pie in the sky," Ennis Davis, a local historian and urban planner, said. "So, until there's money actually allocated to something, that's just talk," he said.
Davis said while the jail has moved locations throughout the city's history, it has always been located within a two to three block radius of the Bay and Market Streets intersection.
He also said the plan to move the jail is nothing new.
"These have been discussions that have gone on from administration to administration, from civic leader to civic leader over the years, so that was not surprising that this pops up," he said. "It's been talked about for a long time, even way before this administration that's in office now."
Specific details, like the proposed location of the project, won't be released until Curry makes his budget presentation to the Jacksonville City Council on July 21. However, previous five year fiscal plans that also proposed the move named the location as a site on Lannie Road on the northside.
It's the current site of Montgomery Correctional, also known as the "Prison Farm," and near the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office's gun range.
That property is currently owned by the city and is about a half hour from the current jail. Previous year's plans said the proposed facility would be used to consolidate and replace existing structures at the Montgomery Correctional Center.
Plans also said the proposed facility "may be necessary due to the location, age and condition of the John E. Goode, Pretrial Detention Center." It mentions the facility would hold offenders who stay incarcerated past their initial court date, county sentenced or awaiting transfer to the state or other systems.
The mayor's latest proposed Capital Improvement Plan also proposes close to $41 million for a 500-bed detention facility.
This facility would receive, process and house short term offenders including, inmates awaiting first appearances and "those inmates deemed inappropriate for our other facilities due to medical needs and physical limitations." Money for this project also wouldn't be immediate.