Jackson County breaks ground on new jail after two previously failed votes

MAQUOKETA, Iowa (KWQC) - The Jackson County Sheriff’s office broke ground on a new jail in Maquoketa on Monday. The new jail will be about seventeen thousand square feet and have 32 beds.

Jackson County Sheriff Brent Kilburg said the jail will cost about six million dollars. The groundbreaking comes after multiple failed jail inspections at the current facility and two failed referendum votes.

“This has been needing to happen for a long time,” said Kilburg, “The first two times they tried to pass it we didn’t have enough public support to get it to pass.”

The third referendum vote got approval in March 2021.

“It will involve over 26 contractors and subcontractors so it will create a lot of work around this area,” said John Hansen, with construction management on the project.

Kilburg said the current jail does not have many cells and doesn’t have the necessary separation between rooms that’s required by state code.

“It’s not ideal and it’s not acceptable to the state code but we’ve done what we had to do just to get by,” said Kilburg, “Regardless, our facility is not within state code. So, we had two options - shut it down and house everybody out, or you get to building the new facility and that’s probably the better option.”

The construction company estimates the jail will be completed by May 2023.

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