The Rise and Fail of the Wayne County Jail - Research Paper Example

Wayne county jail is situated in Michigan and it is known as the largest jail in the United State. The jail has the capability of holding 2,600 people. The jail has three facilities or divisions. One of the divisions is a facility where one is accused for felony but not yet proved also known as pretrial felons, the second is sentenced felons, and this is a facility that accommodates those who have been sentenced for various reasons. The third facility is for those who are guilty and people known to have conducted a serious crime. The county jail is ranked as the 18th largest and most known in the United States. Wayne county is in the Northwest Territory and the jail is named after the founder Mad Anthony Wayne. The jail is in the lower part of peninsula of Michigan and even extends to other part of northern Ohio and Indiana. Wayne county jail failed based on various factors including overrun of the budget that was estimated, poor management, sale of the jail which failed, failure to meet the deadline and failure to conclude an agreement. During the 2010 US census, the population of the Wayne county jail was decreasing and the growth was estimated to be -11%. The county jail was for all races and this meant that it did not matter if one was from the black or African America, Asian, Native American among other races. The American community survey estimate that those who are employed in the county jail receives an income of about $39,408 and those for the family is about $49,176, male income is $26,823,and for the female is about $17,744. The county government is in charge of the jail, making sure that the management is in good position as well as maintaining rural roads that are in bad condition. The same county government makes sure that the important documents are in their hands for example the files for mortgages among others. Causes of the failure of Wayne county jail Budget overrun of the estimated figure The building authority is the one that is given the work of building the county jail and the estimated figure was $300 million, but the county jail had to consume about $220 million but the estimated figure overruns with almost $91 million making the construction of the jail to halt. The initial cost was about $391 for completion of the county jail. Due to the budget overrun, the management decided to sell the county jail and the possible buyers are Quicken Loans of Real Estate Services and Penobscot Building. The right procedure the county jail thought was to shut down the project completely but the county government together with the citizens is going to question as to why the jail was closed since they are the taxpayers and it is their right to know the progress of the construction. Since the management had carried the audit of the county jail, and the fund was allocated according to the certificate they presented to the finance department, then the executive like Robert Ficano would not like to be associated with such kind of matters. An audit firm from the outside which was given the responsibility to investigate the cause of the budget overrun concluded that $42.3 millions of the cost overrun were approved by the county jail project manager which was against the law since the one supposed to approve the project was the Building Authority of Wayne County. Building Authority had to oversight the project, Ghafari Associates was supposed to work in hand with the construction managers; Walbridge so that the cost that was estimated would lie within the original projection but the county jail management did the opposite way leading to the collapse of the Wayne county jail. The building authority was the one supposed to plan for the county jail construction and being the oversight of the project, and then the county officials had to meet regularly so that they could deliberate about the county jail, they canceled all the meetings making it hard for communication between the official and the building authority. Lack of communication made the building authority to abandon decision making process to chief financial officer (David 56). Due to the collapse of Wayne county jail, the representative of the owner was not paid anything after working for just few days. The representative was known as having the ability of oversight since he had shown potential after he performed construction oversight in an office built by Mullins brother. The lack of transparency and accountability in the county jail construction still lead to the down fall since Ficano as the top executive said that the members who were appointed to deal with the construction and management together were corrupt, nevertheless he did not take the necessary action of doing away with them. Ficano as the executive pleaded guilty since he was unable to achieve the role he was given and always made inappropriate choices since he was surrounded by wrong people. Public fund were misused and this lead to economic crisis and this resulted to the enclosure of the county jail, the county building authority was unable to oversight for the construction of the county jail and thus making the Wayne county commission not to interfere with the work of the building authority. Failure to meet the deadline One of the key aspects that led to the failure of the jail is that the officials of the county jail together with Wayne county commissioners did not meet the deadline of signing an agreement to sell the failed county jail project to Dan Gilbert. This made the officials of the two to sit and come up with an idea of agreeing to meet and make decision on the county jail project so as to sell the project that had failed. Wayne county commission had to seek for committee suggestions and tried to other meeting but after agreeing to meet again before the day the meeting was canceled. The administration of the county jail was aware that if the commission together with the selected committee would have achieved their goal leading to the approval in just one day and thus making sure that the county jail would not be sold. But the commissioner aim was to make sure that Dan Gilbert’s proposal was to be achieved thus selling of the Wayne county jail (Metzger 56). The taxpayers had lost a lot of fund and thus making the management of the county jail feel guilty of their failure to complete their mission thus making them never to be trusted for any taxpayer’s project. Officials from the executive body had to look for the companies that would buy the failed project since the project managers were unable to continue with the work of construction due to the budget overrun, the county jail announced lawsuit to the managers since they were unable to handle the construction work after using more than $155 million that had been spent in the site and others as the payment of those who were working in the county jail project. The lawsuit was to try and investigate why the budget that was estimated had to overrun and if there was any criminal act that was involved during construction. Commissioners from other company had lost confidence with the county jail managers and the whole commission since they used the taxpayers dollars but nothing was achieved and ending up of county jail to be closed thus their was need to make sure that those who were involved should be charged to the court due to mismanagement of the public fund. If the county jail will not be sold then the county council must hire new people to continue with the work of construction since those who failed to accomplish the council plan were no longer liable since if given the same project would lead to halt still. Since the deadline was not met, then the county officials had to look for other contractors like Rock Ventures who estimated that the completion of the county jail would use the $500 million. Poor management In 2005, the Wayne county executive tried to carry a feasibility study that would investigate all those who were under the management docket and officials into a single criminal justice since they led to construction of the county jail half way with consuming almost $300 million but the project then halted. The commission on the Wayne county project prepared a report indicating the long term benefits and short term benefits of the county jail. One of the benefits was that the jail would be turned as an entertainment zone which was just to be done only to a single cell in downtown referred to as Detroit thus venturing on the entertainment zone. Another benefit was that the Rock Ventures would be given six month to state whether they are going to sell the county jail to Gilbert since the county jail construction had failed. The deal of selling the county jail would give Wayne county $50 million. Another benefit was to carry a feasibility study that was approved to be costing $2.1 million if managed well and it would cover the estimated $300 million making the jail to benefit from that feasibility study thus leading to the completion of Wayne county jail. Due to poor management of taxpayers fund and usage of almost $300 million, the partially build failed jail project that revealed no progress for seven years, the county commissioners to felt betrayed by the managers and other officials who were in charge of the construction site. The county commissioners warned the executive and building authority that if the trend of deal continued, it would cost the taxpayers $1.1 billion thus making the life of taxpayers miserable (Hamtramck 32). Due to the delay of the Wayne county jail, the Wayne county commission approved for new jail construction which only derived the taxpayers $26 million annually and the fund would emanate from their savings. This made the approval to be fast without even analyzing the cost well, this is due to frustration of the county jail that failed after being partially built and costing taxpayers a lot of financial resources. The reason as to why the Wayne county jail had to come up with idea of constructing a new jail was because the county spends almost 75 percent of the taxpayers fund budget on the criminal justice. The county jail is known as the largest in Michigan thus spending a lot of funds in criminal justice holding at least 2,600 people. Due to the situation of failure to complete the county jail in time, it has been estimated that the project costs the taxpayers almost $70,000 per day, thus making the life of ordinary civilians to be difficult since they have to dig deeper to their pocket. This was due to lack of guidance and poor management from the start of project and some of the officials being corrupt and thus the need of the legal frame work to intervene. Officials and other managers of the Wayne county jail lack of competency and lack of managerial skills has done a lot of injustices to the taxpayers and the government as well. Whenever commissioners and the taxpayers see the partially build jail, they always see the failures of Michigan state officials as people who are incompetent and who are unable to lead others as examples due to corruption and other unethical behaviors. Then the rights of the taxpayers can only be heard when justice systems are improved accordingly and this can only be done when the fund that is allocated to any sector is managed efficiently and ethically. Without a well build facilitates to accommodate criminals of the street and a well court that can be used to prosecute the offenders of the law would not make any meaning to any state without such kind of facilities. Thus, managerial skills need to be looked upon when one is to be delegated duties to carry on the behalf of others. Legal part of Wayne county jail project Wayne County together with its building authority has filed a suit seeking to recover almost $154 million from the contractors who were engaged in the process of either buying the county jail or the ones who had to do the construction of county jail. The three contractors who have been involved in the county jail construction are Walbridge Aldinger Company in Detroit, Ghafari Associates, and AECOM Technical Services INC who has been involved as engineering architecture. The lawsuit is filed to make sure that $154 million is returned by the three main contractors since they were entitled with the completion of Wayne county jail which estimated figure for completion is $220 million but their was a budget overrun of $91 million ending to the closure of the county jail. Wayne county circuit judge Daphne tells the building authority that Wayne county is entitled to recover all the damages but the county jail is prepared to spend another $25,000 so that the county jail can sue the engineering, consultant who have been involved, architectures, operation and maintenance managers and the AECOM company since it was involved in termination of contract that the company had to start on August. From the beginning Wayne county jail project had already spent a lot of fund worth $130 million for the construction and buying of the necessary materials that were being used in the jail project when county jail realized that the project had an overrun from the previous estimate. This was according to Grary August who was the then partner at Flamingo Hills; they had met with Zausmer, Kaufun, and Caldwell since they had to file a petition to the ones who were involved in the county jail failure of county jail plan. Walbridge who had been involved in a joint venture with Pittsburgh earlier had informed the Wayne county jail that it was supposed to be completed in 2014 and the jail was estimated to cost the taxpayer a maximum of $270 million and this was according to the lawsuit and August. This meant that the project was overrunning with $50 million thus making it hard to continue with the construction leading to frustration to the building authority of Wayne county jail project (Farmer 45). The budget overrun of $50 million made the building authority of Wayne county jail to suspend the work on the jail project in June and thus the agreement that the company together with the building authority had signed made termination of the agreement with Walbridge the construction manager of Wayne county jail project. In May the construction project has an overrun of $154 million for the remaining work and thus need to sue the contractors involved. The Wayne county jail together with the building authority has to sue the contractors since the work was given according to the level of professionalism and thus the contactors negligence of duty had to face the consequences of the law. The breach of the trustee and the beneficiary, breach of Wayne county jail project which before the start of construction the county jail officials had signed agreements and terms of working which are now violated. Termination of agreement that Walbridge together with building authority signed is breaching of construction agreement thus violating the rules of the county jail project. And lastly the contractors unable to finish the work of construction with the maximum price that is agreed to completion of county jail project is breach of the agreement and thus Wayne county jail project and building authority had to sue the contractors. The contactors reported to the claims of the county jail project telling them that they performed the construction project following the rules of the county and how the contract was indicating. Due to the estimated budget to overrun then the county jail managers had no other option rather to halt the project for a while to investigate why there is such a kind of budget overrun even before the completion since the taxpayers fund must be managed effectively. Due to the frustration of the county jail project failure executive Robert Ficano in consultation with other officials of the county jail project asked the county commissioners to make sure that they approve a 90 day consultation with the Rock Ventures of Dan Gilbert’s Real Estate to conclude the matter completely. The reason for the consultation is due to Rock Ventures idea to purchase 15.5 acre site and other parts of the county jail for $50 million and build residential areas and hotels that will occupy 200,000 square feet this made the commissioners to ask for 90 day to take consideration and consultation before county jail decides the best option. The Detroit (WXYZ) Wayne county officials again has announced that they are going to sue the managers of the county jail project for the failing of the project that caused the taxpayers to dig deeper in their pocket since of the mismanagement of $154 million the delay of the three contractors made the budget to overrun with $50million and the lawsuit was announced when the executive Robert Ficano announced county jail project was in sale since with such a budget overrun then he had to move the jail to Mound Road. Implications on the property Dan Gilbert has been the man who has shown interest to buy Wayne county jail and he has worked to change the Downtown Detroit to achieve its destination, so he has to make sure that the county jail will move to another site of Mound Road after spending $100 million on the Downtown Detroit site. This is criticized by many people since the city used expensive property and then going to partially built county jail project. Executive Robert Ficano has used more than a $100 million and yet the project was to be completed in 2014. The CEO of Rock Ventures has consulted the officials and executive of Wayne County for three weeks about a deal how the county jail will be moved to Mound Road on the Detroit east side. Rock Ventures is willing to buy the Wayne county jail and move the county jail to Mound Road. Then Greektown casino of Rock Ventures would stretch to Grand Circus Park. Mound Road facility was a prison in the past but the facility was shut down in 2012 and later the project was opened with only 200 bed which means it was too small to handle more prisoners but acted as the facility for Detroit arrests only, their was need for the county jail to go and combine with the Mound Road facility (Patric 66). The moving of the county jail to Mound Road made the county jail to build other five new cells a day and this is easier to county jail since Mound Road was partially complete and this made no delay. The move to Mound Road made the county jail to be approved up to $300 million and worth to come up with anew jail but their was an existing jail in Mound Road and the jail had to start operating in September 2014. The new downtown jail was suppose to handle 2,192 prisoners and this made the new move to be saving the county $20 million annually and the jail accommodates three more jails into one facility making the new jail to be a great importance to the residents. The three facilities that are inside the Mound Road are the county juvenile facility, Frank Murphy Hall of Justice and Detroit Police Department and they are within a short distance that one can walk. The properties that are inside the Mound Road if they are developed fully by the new management will be of much value and they can make the county jail to be the source of revenue to Michigan and the whole state. Since the jail was build in an area which is best, making the city to increase the tax revenue thus making it a booster of the economy leading to stability of the state. Rock Ventures were even in the position to finance the new Mound Road to reach to destination even funding the county jail by supporting to build complex structures this was according to CEO of Detroit Lions owner Bill Ford. Due to the revenue increase from the new downtown Detroit the county officials are doing away with the property tax revenue since the new county jail is getting a lot of revenue for example, the Greektown Casino and the Ford Field since both invest a lot in the city paying the county millions in the property taxes each year. Wayne County was moved to the Mound Road in 2011 making the plan that was hectic to success after along struggle with the management which was hard to control and loosing of million dollars from the already started project but today the county is celebrating the work of Ficano who made the idea of selling Wayne county jail to Rock Ventures. Napoleon is the only critic of the project since the man was saying that he is not involved in the talks of the county and as an official he was supposed to be involved to know the progress of the new jail. Due to the well done job, the state has agreed to offer Wayne county a $1 lease to make sure that the new Mound Road prison facility will be the center of high revenue collection making the county to be stable economically, so with the help of the state will make it successful in its projects and again the county jail benefit both the county residents and the whole state. Again the county jail will be able to enhance public safety in Michigan region and thus making investments to be done without any fear of insecurity. The officials are coming with the idea of constructing another county jail but before the construction they must make the decisions where the jail is going to be located before the taxpayer fund is spent to curb the kind of frustration was in the Wayne county jail. Works Cited David, C. Management Failures of the County Jail Project. Michigan: Central Michigan University, 2000.Print. Farmer, S.The History Of Detroit And Michigan. Michigan: Michigan Press, 1969.Print. Hamtramck, K. Jail Division Wayne County, New York: Clinton Street, 2012.Print. Metzger, K. Michigan and Metropolitan Detroit. New York: Wayne State University, 2001.Print.  Patric, K.  Proclamation by Winthrop Sargent. New York: New York Press, 2006.Print. Read More