RED BLUFF — The Tehama County Board of Supervisors and Sheriff Dave Kain invite the community to join them Tuesday afternoon for a groundbreaking ceremony on the jail re-entry facility.
The ceremony will start at 1:30 p.m. at the project site located at the northeast corner of Madison Street and Oak Street in Red Bluff.
The Tehama County Community Correction Re-Entry Facility will be at 645 Madison Street, the location of the old library, adjacent to the existing jail.
According to the county, the new facility will feature dorms to house 64 inmates, along with an upgraded kitchen, laundry, medical, and programming space to serve the existing jail. The project also includes relocating to Madison Street to place the new facility adjacent to the existing jail.
“We just ran into a huge mess with the last parade trying to get access in and out of the jail if we had some type of emergency because Madison Street was closed off,” Kain said. “which even rerouted some of our employees around to the other side of the building to try to come in so that will help with this process to allow us emergent access during all events.”
Administrative Analyst Tom Provine said the facility does not have a vehicle Sallyport or booking area.
“It does not have individual cells or padded cells, which are things that we need but it has got 64 beds, which are needed, and it is about a 21,000-square-foot facility,” he added.
The total project budget is around $27 million, including $21.7 million for construction. The Board of State and Community Corrections awarded Tehama County $20 million from the SB1022 Adult Local Criminal Justice Facilities Construction Financing Program.
Over the summer, the Board of Supervisors approved the jail re-entry facility’s plans and specifications and allowed staff to advertise for bids on the project. The county was authorized to bid on May 18 following numerous events like public engagement, design change, changing state requirements, and COVID delays.
The project goes back to 2013 when the supervisors approved a needs analysis study related to the jail.
In November 2016, the board accepted the conditional award money of $20 million.
Two years later, the county reached an agreement with Red Bluff regarding the project, and the state approved the scope, cost, and schedule of the project in August 2019.
The Tehama County Library site on Madison Street in 2020 was demolished for expansion.
Former Chief Administrator Bill Goodwin said the county expected occupancy in late November 2022 or early 2023.
