Anoka County, city deadlocked over plans for bigger jail downtown. Will they finally compromise?

Commander Sheila Larson opened the door to a padded room with a mattress on the floor, a makeshift holding cell for inmates in a severe mental health crisis.

“This is not a cell intended for that,” Larson, with the Sheriff’s Office, said while standing inside the 40-year-old Anoka County jail. She explained that such inmates would ideally be in a normal living unit with mental health support and access to medical staff.

“But this is all we have, especially when we’re full.”

Anoka County officials have pushed to build a new jail for several years, one that would house a dedicated mental health unit and increase capacity from 240 to 540 beds. Officials say the jail is far too small and falling apart. Staff report regular water pipe breaks. When the jail is overcrowded, inmates sleep on cots in hallways or the gym.

But plans for a larger jail have stalled as the county is locked in a stalemate with city leaders, who would need to sign off on the project but worry it would encroach on their historic downtown. Meanwhile, construction costs are rising and the county wants to issue bonds for work in 2025, pressuring officials to finally compromise.

City leaders have drawn a line, saying the county must either downsize the proposed jail or move it out of town. The city successfully lobbied state lawmakers to get permission to move the jail outside the county seat.

Many county officials stand firm that the new jail must be attached to the downtown courthouse and near public transportation, saying relocation would raise costs. The proposed facility would sit where the parking garage is on Jackson Street and extend north, requiring the city to close off part of Van Buren Street.

“With a building of that scale in that location, I think there’s a real risk of changing the dynamic of what downtown Anoka is,” said Erik Skogquist, incoming Anoka mayor.

Despite years of discord, Anoka County and city officials do agree a new jail is needed.

Walking through the building in December, Larson pointed out problems. Squad cars wait along the street when the garage doesn’t have room for them. Kitchen tiles were torn up after a pipe broke. The housing unit for women is almost always overcrowded.

Anoka County’s jail, built in 1983, is the oldest in the metro area. The Minnesota Department of Corrections in November decided it should be inspected annually due to its condition, noting the building does not have adequate room to separate inmates, or for storage and basic functions.

And isolating people during extreme mental health crises, due to the lack of a dedicated unit, “can further deteriorate inmates’ mental health,” said Tierney Peters, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office. She said nearly half of all maximum custody inmates have such needs.

The jail was built to house 140 inmates, but as the county grew, the jail was licensed to hold a maximum of 240 in the 1990s. Peters said the county, which books roughly 10,000 people annually, spends more than $1 million each year boarding inmates in other counties.

Meanwhile the Hennepin County Board in December agreed to spend $5.4 million to house inmates in other counties to meet a state order to keep its population below 600. Anoka County commissioners cited the situation as another reason their project needs to progress.

“I don’t want us to lose sight of the health and safety of the human beings affected by this, the staff who function in that building every day and the folks who are inmates; a lot of them are temporary and not in there very long,” Commissioner Mandy Meisner said.

County leaders have worked on plans since 2017 but keep running into disagreements with the city. A 2020 study noted serious problems with the jail, including a risk of inmate escape and obscured visibility.

The study found the jail needs capacity for 540 inmates, based on population trends. The county is expected to increase from 360,000 residents in 2020 to 433,000 by 2050, according to new forecasts by the Metropolitan Council.

The county board this past summer agreed to move forward with a $208 million plan to build a 246,000-square-foot jail and parking ramp downtown — and later voted on its intent to issue bonds for it.

But the City Council has refused to sign off.

“Right where they proposed it, it would be in everybody’s face,” Anoka resident Daniel Dahlheimer said.

Developer Mick Conlan approached the City Council this past fall with plans to build a 72-unit housing cooperative for seniors downtown.

When asked if his plans would change if the new jail were built, Conlan said flatly, “The project wouldn’t move forward.”

It’s a conversation city leaders argued was inevitable: that a larger jail could drive away development. The current jail is relatively inconspicuous, tucked behind the county government center and courthouse, between 3rd and 4th avenues.

It sits by the river town’s shopping and entertainment hub, lined with shops and restaurants with historic facades. The downtown sees thousands of visitors each year for concerts, Halloween events, a classic car show and food truck festival.

“It’s small, but we pack a big punch,” Anoka Council Member Jeff Weaver said of the downtown. “They don’t make many like it, so why wreck it?”

City leaders are pushing the county to consider other options.

“With the sheer length and scale of the building, you would have about a three-block-long wall that disconnects our downtown to some of the historic neighborhoods to the east,” Skogquist said.

Many city officials feel the county board hasn’t incorporated their input or offered enough time to explore alternatives.

Ronald Prokott, president of the housing cooperative overlooking the Green Haven Golf Course in Anoka, said he was especially upset that the county board advanced plans while the seat representing the city of Anoka was vacant.

“I find that a little Boston Tea Party-like, and very frustrating,” Prokott said. “It’s alarming the way they’ve pushed this through.”

County staff said six potential jail sites were evaluated, including the former state hospital campus on 4th Avenue and state-owned land by Anoka High School.

They determined logistical problems and costs made those unfeasible, since moving the jail away from the courthouse would require transporting inmates to and from hearings. Officials said they also explored building a new justice center complex with courtrooms, but that came with a $100 million added price tag.

“We’ve been working hard to find another option, but there really isn’t another option,” Meisner said, adding that she hopes a new City Council will “come back to the table and work this out.”

Several city officials and residents also question whether the jail needs to be so big. County officials counter that they don’t want to end up in the same situation, where after a decade the facility is already too small.

Some city officials said they could be open to a less obstructive design that doesn’t block a street. They hope conversations will be more productive with new representation on the county board from John Heinrich, who was elected in November.

At least a couple of county board members have said they would consider a smaller jail. Commissioner Jeff Reinert doesn’t believe that many beds are needed and argued that alternatives have been ignored. Commissioner Julie Jeppson called the capacity a “very, very large number” for Anoka County’s size and is open to reevaluating it.

The county is submitting a new permit request to the city and providing traffic studies as requested by the council, which is expected to review them in early 2025.

Jeppson said relationships have been “really damaged” over the years-long project but feels that is starting to change.

“From the city lens, it has felt like leadership is saying: ‘This is what we’re doing, sorry if you don’t like it,‘” she said. “That’s not a partnership.

“We can’t pause this project any longer, but we have to find a different way we can move forward and reach a consensus.”