Community members are pushing back against local leaders’ renewed discussions about building a larger jail in Boone County.
The Columbia No New Jail Coalition began organizing last fall after the city’s ban on loitering in medians and previous comments from Boone County Sheriff Dwayne Carey about wanting to build a new jail.
Boone County Presiding Commissioner Kip Kendrick spoke on a Columbia radio station Saturday morning about issues with the current jail. He said part of the concern stems from the jail’s age and a design that he said no longer meets the needs of the area’s growing population.
“[The jail] can hold around 200 individuals right now,” Kendrick said. “We're at about 186 in county, and we're consistently above 200 out of county.”
Molly Housh Gordon is a member of the Columbia No New Jail Coalition. She said the group wants to shift the conversation away from expanding incarceration and toward investing in community needs.
“The vast amount of financial resources it would take to incarcerate more people would be more effectively, more justly and more compassionately spent on programs of social support instead of incarceration,” Gordon said.
The coalition believes building a larger jail would not address the root causes of incarceration.
Operating costs
The conversation is part of a broader discussion about public safety over the last few months. Boone County Sheriff Dwayne Carey previously advocated for a larger jail last November, saying the county needed a capacity of 1,000 to 1,200 beds. Recently, Carey said 800 beds would be enough as well as a mental health housing unit.
Boone County currently spends more on housing detainees in facilities out of county than in county, and that number is only growing. According to Kendrick, the county spent $920,000 in 2024 on out-of-county housing. In 2025, the county spent $2.56 million.
Rising costs are driven not only by more detainees, but by increasing prices charged by other counties. Kendrick said the federal government’s reimbursement rate of $100 per ICE detainee is significantly more than what counties charge to hold out-of-county detainees.
“It puts a lot of price pressure on them as well when they start to see potential revenue streams,” Kendrick said.
The Columbia No New Jail Coalition members have been concerned for years about how Carey works with ICE. Gordon said adding more beds opens the door for potential injustice.
“If we have more beds, then the sheriff is going to want to fill them in more lucrative ways,” she said. “We're really concerned that expanding the jail would be used to further the cooperating with ICE.”
More people incarcerated
For Columbia, some of the increase in detainees could be attributed to increased hiring and more proactive policing.
“That $1.5 million increase [in out-of-county housing costs] certainly wasn't all because of that,” Kendrick said. “But I think a decent amount of the increase in in law enforcement officials - police officers within [the Columbia Police Department] - probably does obviously equate to more detainees.”
Columbia Police Department Chief Jill Schlude previously told KBIA the department’s increased enforcement of some crimes has resulted in more arrests.
Kendrick also noted that even if a new facility was approved, it would take roughly four years to build.
“We’ve got to try to figure out how to address this issue in the shorter term as well,” Kendrick said.
Gordon said policy changes are more effective at reducing overcrowding.
“One solution to this overcrowding rationale is some policy change to end that predatory cash bail system,” Gordon said. “It essentially ensures that people who are living in poverty are kind of trapped in our jail system who don't need to be there.”
The Columbia No New Jail Coalition believes new revenue for public safety should be directed toward social programs rather than jail expansion.
“We'd like to see our county's resources going to public health, affordable housing, and so many other areas of life that are underfunded and disregarded,” Gordon said.
Gordon also emphasized the coalition’s broader organizing efforts, which include educating community members and speaking with local leaders about alternatives to incarceration.
“Think about what [that money] could do for our community,” Gordon said. “What could happen if it were invested in programs of social uplift instead of incarceration?”
