By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com

Fayette County's governing body Monday got its first look at detailed plans for the county's new $55 million jail and courthouse complex.

Jim Ingram of Ingram Parris Group, design architects for the project, presented floor plans and color renderings following the commission's budget workshop.

Commissioners are expected to approve a “notice to proceed” during their business meeting Thursday, authorizing project manager Jim Mallett to move ahead with final design work.

“We've pretty much been able to satisfy everybody,” Mallett told the commissioners Monday, referring to wish lists from the judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officers and clerks who will occupy the sprawling new complex once it's completed.

Architects and consultants met with all the senior officials involved and resolved most of their concerns, he said, though a few requests couldn't be met for security reasons. All those involved signed off on the preliminary design, said Ingram.

The plans Ingram presented show six new jail pods, each with space for 64 inmates, and each easily divided into spaces of 40 and 24, in case there's a need to separate small groups from the main prison body, such as females or violent criminals.

Security is paramount in the design, he said. “Minimizing inmate movement is central to it,” he said. “If the inmates generally stay put, it's a more efficient facility to operate, and it's more secure,” he added.

Inmates will eat, sleep and get some outside recreation time without having to move about in areas other than their living units, he said. And they'll travel from jail to the new courthouse for trials in tunnels. Separate elevators will take them to holding areas next to the courtrooms, with the general public using a different set of elevators and judges using a third set.

The three-story courthouse will have an open atrium, with offices for security officers right next to the main entrance.

Along with facilities for the clerk of court, two Magistrate Courtrooms will be on the first floor. Two identical Superior Courtrooms and two State Courtrooms will occupy much of the second floor, along with a 200-seat jury selection room and a grand jury meeting suite.

Courtrooms will have extra room at the back for media coverage, and one courtroom may be set up with extra space for particularly high-profile cases, said Ingram.

All entrances will have panic locks and will be monitored by closed circuit television, he added.

Mallett said he hopes to have final design completed by late fall and will be ready to bid the project by January, with ground breaking in the spring.

Commissioner Greg Dunn, who is the commission's liaison for the judicial center project, said designers have worked hard to plan the project well to eliminate costly change orders. “You probably can't build a project this size without any change orders, but we're going to try,” he said.