Louis AguilarThe Detroit News
Detroit — Wayne County's 13-year odyssey to build a new criminal justice center — rife with stops, starts and an abandoned earlier location — may end in early September as it prepares to open a new complex that replaces outdated, sometimes dangerous conditions with safe, efficient spaces.
Barring any last-minute delay, the core of the county's court and jails will operate out of a new five-building facility, located on Russell Street north of Warren Avenue and east of Interstate 75, starting Sept. 3. It contains offices for the county prosecutor and her staff, sheriff, more than two dozen courtrooms, a juvenile detention facility and adult jail.
The new Wayne County Criminal Justice Center is "the largest construction project in Wayne County history," said James Heath, Wayne County's corporation counsel.
As the massive move continues, the total cost is still unknown, but the bill for taxpayers is over $500 million, according to estimates provided to The Detroit News through a Freedom of Information Act request.
In a media tour of portions of the facility earlier this month, county officials showed off the roughly 1 million-square-foot complex. The new center can help solve many of the dangerous challenges the county's criminal justice system faces, many county officials contend. Some jail cells used now are almost 100 years old, for example, officials said.
"We are leaving antiquated infrastructure," said Radken Smith, a deputy director for the juvenile detention services, referring to the facility in Hamtramck that Wayne County uses now for juvenile detainees.
The half billion dollars for the new criminal justice complex doesn't include the taxpayer cost for an earlier "failed jailed" project more than a decade ago. In 2011, the county started constructing a new jail near the current downtown jail facilities and Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. But in 2013, construction of the partially built jail was halted because it had gone $90 million over budget.
A 2018 deal with private developer Bedrock enabled county's long-deferred dream of a new criminal justice center to finally become true.
1,700 personnel at one complex
On Sept. 3, the day after Labor Day, the new criminal justice center is scheduled to become home to the county's main jail, juvenile detention center, 26 courtrooms for the 3rd Judicial Circuit of Michigan and headquarters for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office.
The facility "brings us into the 21st Century, and is extremely user-friendly,” said Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
About 1,700 county personnel will work out of the complex, county officials said. The new justice center has more than 2,000 parking spaces, which will be free for staff and visitors.
The facility at 5301 Russell Street is on roughly 10 acres east of I-75 and East Warren Avenue. It's not far from the city's Midtown neighborhood and about two miles north of the downtown cluster of jails and courthouse the new criminal justice center replaces.
For weeks now, county workers have been packing and preparing for the move out of the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, two adult jail facilities, and the current juvenile detention facility in Hamtramck.
Bedrock oversaw construction of the new center in exchange for gaining ownership of the downtown buildings the county is leaving. The Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, which houses the criminal division of Wayne County's circuit courts, along with the adjacent jail facilities near downtown's Greektown, are now owned by Bedrock. So is a former juvenile detention facility that's one block from the Greektown-area courthouse and adult jails.
The new juvenile justice center, which will include a gym with a basketball court for detainees to use, is "going to offer a culture of calm for the youth that we bring over there," said Mack McGhee, division director of juvenile and youth services for the county's juvenile detention facility.
In 2022, the county left its juvenile detention center downtown due to overcrowding and understaffing. It moved to a vacant former adult jail in Hamtramck.
The new facility comes after the alleged assault of a 12-year-old boy last March at in the Hamtramck facility resulted in a state intervention. Wayne County Executive Warren Evans declared a state of emergency amid what he called "untenable" conditions and issues with overcrowding, assaults and alack of necessities for the detainees.
Better technology
The technology and design embedded in the new criminal justice complex also is a vast improvement from current conditions, county officials contend.
One major difference is the units where juvenile detainees will sleep. At the current facility, there are up to 60 cells in a unit, officials said. At the new facility, units hold only up to 16 juveniles, said McGhee. That will greatly increase the ratio of staff monitoring youths. The state of Michigan requires a 2-to-10 ratio, meaning 2 adult staff monitoring 10 youths, county officials said. The new facility will have a 3-to-16 ratio.
The Wayne County Sheriff's Office, meanwhile, is leaving behind adult jails that in some cases are nearly 100 years old. The new facility will have capacity for 2,280 adult inmates.
"We couldn't be happier," said Edward Foxworth, the Wayne County Sheriff's director of communications.
Because the new facility brings together courthouses and jails, friends and family of detainees should have an easier time navigating the legal system of courthouses, paying bond and getting more information, said Capt. Rachael Davis with the Wayne County Sheriff's Office.
"You won't have to go from place to place all over the city," Davis said, which is a common complaint officials hear about.
Judge Patricia Perez Fresard, Wayne County 3rd Circuit Court's chief judge, said the overall space is vastly improved.
"There are 26 courtrooms, each of which have more space for all parties," Fresard said.
The new courtrooms will have video monitors and assisted-listening devices. The new facility also has 52 lawyer meeting rooms where clients can meet with attorneys. At Frank Murphy, there are no lawyer-client rooms, Fresard said. The jury assembly space is also much larger, she said.
The new center "provides a higher level of service for the Wayne County community, and a higher level of convenience and comfort for all," Fresard said.
Worker shortages
Antiquated jails are just one of the challenges facing the county's criminal justice system. Another is the chronic shortage of workers for county jobs that hits every part of the criminal justice system particularly hard, according to county data. The sheriff's office, for example, has a total of 453 corporal positions budget for this fiscal year, but had 195 vacancies as of January 2024, according to data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The Wayne County Sheriff's Deputy Association, the union representing about 500 law enforcement workers, meanwhile, is taking a wait-and-see approach about the new facility. It will take some time before the union makes "any type of assessment" on whether the facility is living up to its promise, said Corporal Allen Cox, president of the deputy association.
"It's going to be an opportunity for a new start," said Cox. "It looks like a wonderful new facility. It's kind of like a brand-new boat. Until you drive it, you won't know what it can and can't do."
The prosecutor's office is moving more than 200 lawyers and more than 90 support staff from the Frank Murphy building to the criminal justice center. The move also meant the office implemented a new digital management system to handle its copious paper files.
"This has been a tremendous, positive undertaking," Worthy said. "To have all the criminal justice entities all in one complex will be a tremendous benefit to the community. You don’t even have to leave," the new facility.
The new criminal justice complex wouldn't have come about without the 2018 deal Wayne County struck with Bedrock. The agreement states the county was to spend a total of $401.3 million on the project, with Rock Ventures covering the remaining construction cost overrun, according to documents provided to The News.
The latest estimated cost to taxpayers, as of Dec. 31, is just over $500 million, nearly $100 million more than the original estimate, according to documents obtained by The News.
The costs to the county increased due to a range of ancillary costs. That includes the buildout of a $34 million DTE central utility plant, about $20 million for a host of services such as consultants and attorneys, and about two dozen "change orders" to the facility, as well as the decision to buy a parking lot from Bedrock for $27 million.
The final tab to the county is not yet clear partly because the moving costs are not yet final, said Heath, the county's corporation counsel.
But county officials contend the deal saved the county plenty from the rising costs of construction that have occurred in the past few years that Bedrock has had to shoulder.
The new criminal justice center was originally expected to open in the spring or summer of 2022, but the pandemic and subsequent supply chain issues were among the factors that pushed the anticipated opening to this year.
"This deal is probably going to go down as one of the most historic private and public partnership agreements" for the county, said Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch. The deal slid "strongly to the benefit of the county," due to increased construction costs, he said. "Post-COVID, I don't think this deal would have happened."
What happens to old facilities?
As for the buildings Wayne County is vacating, Bedrock CEO Kofi Bonner said the company plans to demolish at least some of the properties. He didn't specify which ones or the exact timeline.
"We expect to begin demolition and clearance activities later this year," Bonner said in an email to The News.
Bedrock owns the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice and the juvenile detention facility that are both on St. Antoine Street and the two buildings know as Jail 1 and Jail 2 on Clinton Street. The buildings are also near the former Detroit Police headquarters at 1300 Beaubien. The historic vacant building was designed by famed architect Albert Kahn and has been owned by Bedrock since 2018.
Bedrock also owns also the empty 14-acre site of the "failed jail" at Gratiot Avenue, the I-375 Service Drive, Clinton Street and St. Antoine Street.
The properties give Bedrock control of a five-block area that it can redevelop.
"We are now working on business development efforts to develop and animate an area that will provide enhanced opportunities to grow the local economy and attract talent through innovative partnerships and focused investments," Bonner wrote.
laguilar@detroitnews.com
