Macomb County officials unveil design, timeline for jail project

MACOMB COUNTY — Work will begin this year on the new facility at the Macomb County Jail, according to county officials.

At a press conference on Jan. 18, Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel and Sheriff Anthony Wickersham announced the timeline, design and details of the Macomb County Jail’s new central intake and assessment center project. Costing $228 million in federal, county and state funding, demolition of four old buildings is scheduled to begin around July.

Set to be brought before the Macomb County Board of Commissioners in the coming weeks, the building is currently in the design development phase with architectural firms STV Inc. and Mount Clemens-based Partners in Architecture PLC.  The central intake and assessment center is planned to be completed in 2027. Incentives and penalties are planned to encourage contractors to complete construction on schedule.

The new central intake and assessment center will be a more than 177,000-square-foot building housing up to 303 inmates, expanding the jail’s capacity to 1,203 inmates. Spanning four levels, the new facility is designed to improve the county’s approach to inmates and their mental health.

Revamped intake and processing areas will allow deputies to screen inmates for any mental health issues upon arrival and divert them to proper programs once determined. Space will be dedicated for mental health treatment in the top, second and ground floors, and the current conceptual building’s bow-tie design is intended to let ample daylight in.

“In a type of facility like this you want to bring in as much natural daylight as possible,” said Macomb County Chief Deputy Executive Mark Deldin. “We know what natural daylight does, particularly this time of year, how it impacts our own moods. The people who come into this facility with mental health issues, daylight is very important.”

Other features of the new facility are improved video trial capabilities, community corrections facilities, a “full service” court, offices for the county prosecutor and public defenders and a passageway between the old and new buildings.

Several upgrades will be made to the old jail tower during this project including building infrastructure upgrades, replacing the fire protection system and renovating the gun range. Electronic systems in the old building will be integrated with the new one.

Construction will take place after the demolition of four facilities — the minimal security rehabilitation facility, the unused maximum-security block, the limited-use D block and former work release annex — currently occupying nearly 78,000 square feet of the jail property. A limited number of inmates are housed in the rehabilitation and D block areas and moving them around will be part of the larger inmate-management process throughout the project.

“Today, we had 846 inmates at 2 a.m., so we can house 900, plus our booking desk has around 50-some,” Wickersham said. “We can confidently take all the inmates and put everybody in the tower while we’re doing the demolition and constructing the assessment center.”

The jail tower is rated by the Michigan Department of Corrections for a capacity of 900 people, requiring emergency release procedures if the number of inmates exceeds capacity.

Hackel said people will have the option of seeing the old jail facilities and will be given an opportunity to tour the buildings prior to demolition.