Franklin Co. Correctional Facility Project
Memorandum of Understanding aided project timeline
Affiliated members of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building Trades and Construction Council built the new state-of-the-art Franklin County Correctional Facility on time under a contract similar to a Project Labor Agreement.
The facility, located on Fisher Road on the west side of Columbus, replaced the old facility that opened in the 1960s.
Named after Franklin County’s longest-serving sheriff, the James A. Karnes Correctional Facility was designed with pods, a shared space for deputies and those in the corrections center, built-in medical rooms, professional visitation, recreation and space programming. A rapid resource center also connects inmates and their families with transportation, job search and other services.
One of the goals of the $175 million facility was to focus on “strategic inmate management,” which is a system where deputies supervise inmates within the pods where the inmates may freely move around and interact with each other.
Strategic inmate management is one of the many resources offered to inmates to help them become productive citizens when they return to the community.
About 200 members of the Columbus-area building trades constructed the 429,000-square-foot jail under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Franklin County.
MOUs, similar to PLAs, include workforce goals such as diversification and local hiring.
Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin said the new, clean facility will positively affect the experience of both the inmates and the deputies. The change in operations will also allow deputies to stay informed about what is happening throughout the facility.
Construction on the facility began in September 2018 and, despite challenges from the coronavirus pandemic, it opened on schedule in March 2021.
Initially built with 864 beds, a second phase of development added 426 more beds and was completed in July 2022.