Secure Care for Kent
Secure Care for KentKent County's jail has quietly become the county's largest mental health, medical, and addiction treatment facility. As costs rise, funding is required for critical improvements to the facility and to maintain the level of care those in custody deserve.
The millage isn't about adding beds. It's about paying for the screening, treatment, and crisis response the county is required to provide to roughly 18,000 bookings a year, for 30-plus local agencies that rely on Kent County's central facility.
Most initial mental-health screening now happens in the first 72 hours after booking.
The population in custody is more medically complex than it was a decade ago, and needs 24/7 clinical staff, not occasional care.
Medication-assisted treatment and detox support are now standard, everyday parts of running the jail.
This isn't about expanding the jail. It's about paying for the care Kent County is already giving the people inside it.
Care and security aren't competing priorities here, they're paid for out of the same line item. When that falls short, the pressure lands on the sheriff's other services.
When jail costs spill onto the general fund, dollars for road patrol is put at risk, having impact far beyond the jail's walls.
Court security and inmate transport depend on staffing that can flex with the population.
Renewal locks in dedicated funding for operations, maintenance, and debt service; planned on the county's timeline, not under last-minute pressure.
Right now, cities pay the county a daily per-diem for every person they book into the county jail. If the millage passes, it gives the County an opportunity to eliminate per-diem fees.
Roughly $28.7 million in annual operating and debt-service support would still be needed somewhere. If the millage doesn't cover it, the county — and its cities — feel it across the board.
Support has to be absorbed, offset, or cut elsewhere in the county budget.
Inmate movement and timely hearings get harder to schedule reliably.
Less flexibility to manage a population that's grown more medically and clinically demanding.
Without a shared county facility, cities could face real pressure to fund their own lockups.
This renews and modestly raises the levy that funds jail operations, medical and mental health care, and debt service, first approved by Kent County voters in 1990.
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