Voters in Cochise County in southeastern Arizona will have a chance this spring to decide whether to approve a proposal calling for construction of a new jail.
The facility would replace the current jail at 203 N. Judd Street in the City of Bisbee. Jail officials have said that that facility, opened in the summer of 1985, is too antiquated for today’s needs and is burdened with several repair issues.
In an interview last year with the Herald/Review of Bisbee, retired Supreme Court Judge James Conlogue said of the Judd Street facility: “The problems cannot be overcome with money. It’s at its end of life.”
It cost just over $5.1 million to build the current facility. It is thought that it will probably cost around $92 million to complete a new jail.
Cochise County has now issued a Request for Arguments, noting the move to create a county jail district as the first step in getting the new jail built. In order to support that district, voters in May will vote up or down on a proposed increase in the county’s sales tax of one-half cent.
The Request for Arguments, gauging public opinion on the project, are required to be confined to 300 words or less and must be received by the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors no later than February 15.
According to sources, up to 10,000 people each year are booked into the Bisbee jail. The county maintains two smaller holding facilities in the nearby cities of Sierra Vista and Willcox, to the west and north of Bisbee.
By Garry Boulard
