Subject:
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Consider authorization to submit planning documents to Department of Corrections
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Presented By: City Manager Hodgen.
Recommendation and Review
City and County staff have been working with consultants on the development of a "Community Based Corrections Plan" and a "Facilities Plan" as part of a course of action to address overcrowding in our regional jail facility. Submittal of these documents is a beginning step in a lengthy process that involves the Department of Corrections, the Governor's Office and the General Assembly.
Submittal of these documents does not commit the City of Harrisonburg or Rockingham County to any of the recommendations in the documents, but does establish the limits of any facility we may build and the maximum amount of any state reimbursement funding that we may be eligible for. In other words, we can "back down" from the recommendations, but we cannot go beyond them. Given the timing elements associated with the submittal process, if we do not submit these documents to Richmond by the end of this month, it would be December of 2016 before our next opportunity to submit.
As partners in the regional jail, both Harrisonburg City Council and the Rockingham County Board of Supervisors must authorize submittal of the documents to the Department of Corrections.
Council has previously received copies of the referenced documents and they are also available through the Rockingham County website.
Staff recommends authorizing the submittal of these documents.