SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
May 10, 2026
Sullivan’s Salvos 5/14/26
In this edition:
*Happy Birthday S‘nova!
*Dems Hall of Fame Event
*Early Voting
*Jail 2026
*Did You Know?
*Happy Birthday S‘nova!
Happy 1st birthday on May 18 to my granddaughter S’nova Sue Ramos!
S’nova is a remarkably happy baby. Which is good, because Melissa and I care for her a few days each week. S’nova loves to look at books, listen to us sing, and honk her Papa’s nose! Happy Birthday, Honey! Papa loves you!
*Dems Hall of Fame Event
The Johnson County Democratic Party is holding our Annual Hall of Fame Awards on Saturday, May 16 at 6:30 pm at the Holiday Inn in Coralville. 2026 marks the 16th consecutive year that the Johnson County Democratic Party has held a separate Hall of Fame event.
Please join us for coffee, desserts, and plenty of old war stories! A cash bar will be available.
The Hall of Fame inductees for 2026 are: Terry and Laurie Dahms, Linda Yanney, Joan and Tom Cook, and Mike Owen. We hope you can join us in recognizing this remarkable group!
Tickets are available for a $50 suggested donation. People who cannot afford that amount should still feel welcome. Sponsorships are available.
*Early Voting
Early voting for the June 2 Primary Elections begins on Wednesday, May 13. Voting is available at the following places and times:
Johnson County Auditor's Office
Weekdays Wednesday, May 13 through Monday, June 1, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Saturday, May 30, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday, May 31, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Drive-Thru Voting
HHS Building Parking Ramp, 855 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City
Weekdays Monday, May 18 through Friday, May 29, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Saturday, May 30, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Sunday, May 31, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Monday, June 1, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
University of Iowa Health Care - North Liberty Campus
Wednesday, May 20, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
University of Iowa Health Care - Health Care Support Services Building
Thursday, May 21, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
University of Iowa Health Care - Iowa River Landing Clinic
Friday, May 22, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
University of Iowa Health Care Fountain Lobby
Tuesday, May 26, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Wednesday, May 27, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Coralville Public Library
Saturday, May 30, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Iowa City Public Library
Saturday, May 30, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sunday, May 31, 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
North Liberty City Hall
Sunday, May 31, 11:00 pm – 5:00 pm
*Jail 2026
As you probably know, Johnson County has been discussing a new jail. I will share my thoughts in a moment.
First, here are the facts – For operational reasons, Johnson County keeps the population of the current facility at about 65 inmates. But that requires paying other counties to house between 15 and 50 inmates each day in their facilities. The average daily population as of this writing is about 97, meaning an average of 32 people are housed elsewhere every day.
Other counties charge between $55 and $80 per day to house each prisoner. We are currently using jails in Linn and Henry County; both charge a bit over $60/day per inmate. Add in transportation costs, and it runs almost $100/day to house an inmate out of county. It costs considerably less to house inmates in our own jail. In FY 2024, our lack of space cost taxpayers almost $400,000 extra.
Problems exist with the current arrangements besides just the cost. Transporting prisoners is a logistical nightmare. They need to appear in court frequently, and also have a right to visitors, which is hard if they are not here. That is another problem – some of the nearby jails are filling up. That means we are forced to transport many prisoners farther away - to Lee County, for example. That adds a great deal to the cost.
I know that no one likes the idea of building a jail. We would all rather spend money on a new park. But operating a jail is a county responsibility that cannot be ignored. European Social Democracies still have jails, and their incarceration rates are not that much lower than the rates in Johnson County. Even with birth to death free healthcare, great schools, free childcare, guaranteed pensions, less income inequality, strict gun laws, and the like, those societies have jails. We will NEVER – and I mean NEVER – approach the level of social investments made by these European countries. We’ll never get close. Regardless of how much we invest upstream, downstream, you are still going to need some jail beds.
So we can talk all we want about funding alternatives – we already *do* fund alternatives, and we can always put more into social services. But we cannot do enough alternatives to obviate the need for a new jail of at least 120 people. We simply can’t. France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and every other social democracy in the world has tried. They spend tens of billions on their social democracies. And they still need jails.
The current jail is simply not acceptable. There are constant sewer problems. The area is so small that is unsafe for inmates and staff alike. Inmates lack basic access to natural light and fresh air. The jail falls far below the national standards for square footage per inmate. There is no real library, and no real exercise space. There is no room for classes, religious services, or even to safely meet with an attorney. The building is too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. Again, it is not the way we want inmates and staff to be treated.
Our jail experts at Shive Hattery have taken this data, entered it into their programs, and come up with a number. Then they worked with the Sheriff and his staff to get a suggested number of 140 beds, plus space for the missing things I mentioned above. Some folks have claimed that this number is way too large. The Sheriff and others feel the number is about right. To me, this is decided simply. What evidence does each side have to back up their arguments?
On the Shive Hattery side, they use software that figures in population growth, crime rates, and several other factors. I understand why a person might be skeptical – of course the company wants to design a bigger facility – that means they are paid more. But there is also a customer satisfaction piece. A lot of counties have used architects who use this software. There are not a lot of complaints. Basically, Shive Hattery cannot predict the future (no one can), but they do this quite well, and counties keep using them.
I keep hearing that we are arresting less people now. That is true, and it is good! It is actually one of the things I am most proud of in my career as a Supervisor. When Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek and I started (we were both first elected in 2004) Johnson County jailed about 160 people every night. The average now is about 60% of what it used to be. This, despite the fact that the population of Johnson County was 119,000 in 2004, and sits at 160,000 today!
Why the decrease? Lots of reasons. We trained *every* public safety officer in Johnson County in Crisis Intervention Training (CIT). We started Mobile Crisis Response. We decriminalized marijuana. We opened the GuideLink Center. Little-seen efforts include case expediting, specialty courts, and better relationships throughout the various “systems.” Those are just a few of the efforts we have made. We have done a lot, and I am damned proud of it!
That said, I see this like a person on a diet. To use exact percentages – we had a person who weighed 320 pounds. They did all the right things for 20 years, and now weigh 186. That is great! It is an unbelievable success! It is rare, and we should be proud! But can we ask them to lose another 25 pounds? Is that possible? Is it even safe?
In addition, when jail opponents point to trends that arrests are down, they conveniently leave off the past couple years. Look closely at the data they use sometime. It rarely includes 2024, and never includes 2025. Why? Because crime (and arrests) went up a bit. It ruins their “trend” argument.
The jail population today is much different that it was 20 years ago. There are not many people in jail now who could easily be released on their own recognizance. The vast, vast majority of the people there are either a threat to others, a risk to flee, or a combination of those factors.
I understand that there are people who want the jail to be smaller. But why? Based upon what factors? We know we have had 115 inmates more than once in recent weeks. Does the public want to spend the money on a brand new facility and *still* have to pay to house prisoners out of county? I very much doubt it.
So again, upon what data are you basing your number? Did you speak with criminologists? Demographers? Public law and policy experts? Experts of any kind? Where do you get your number? We live in a county full of people who use the scientific method. Was the scientific method used here? You may not like the number the Sheriff has put forth, but he has evidence to back his number up. Do you?
One of the tenets underlying the “build smaller” thinking is the idea that there is too much incarceration in America, and we should not contribute to it. I just so happen to agree with that idea, but I reach a different conclusion when it comes to the proposals we are discussing.
Think about Amazon. I am proud to say that I have never ordered anything from Amazon. But I also live in reality. I know that most people order things from Amazon. I think this is a bad thing. I can deny this reality, or pretend it is not true. But it *is* true. So when people plan around the existence of Amazon? They should. They are not wrong, whether I like it or not.
I think there are a lot of local examples that also demonstrate why this thinking is wrong. The Free Medical Clinic recently undertook an expansion. In a perfect world, medical care should be a right. There should be no need for Free Medical Clinics, let alone a larger one. But reality intervenes. The experts looked at the situation, and decided we needed a bigger clinic.
The North Liberty Community Pantry is built a new, larger facility. In a perfect world, everyone would have enough food. But reality intervenes. The experts looked at the situation, and decided we needed a bigger pantry.
The County has been through this as well. When we designed our Health and Human Services Building in 2007, we expected the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Johnson County Mental Health and Disability Services Department (MHDS) to continue to grow. So we built additional space into the building.
As it turned, out, we were wrong. DHS employs almost no one in our building. MHDS was downsized dramatically, and was completely dissolved on July 1. But that does not mean the larger building was a bad idea! We had all sorts of uses for that space between the building opening in January 2010 and a year ago, when the Board of Supervisor’s Office moved up there. Plus, we bought the space at 2010 prices!
It just makes sense. You have friends coming over for dinner. Is it better to have a little too much food, or not quite enough? We deal with this all the time in county government. Do we want to have a few too many ballots, or not enough ballots? Do we want to have a little extra salt and sand, or not enough? Do we want to have a little extra money to get through the year, or not enough? The answers are obvious! The same thing applies to jail beds. Do we want to have a few extra, or not enough? I want a few extra!
You can argue, “if you build it, they will just fill it.” But there is no evidence to back that up. Look at my earlier examples. Do we put down extra salt and sand just because we have it? No, we carry it forward. Do we spend extra money just because we have it? No, we carry it forward.
Additionally, I have been here long enough to know what happens when elected officials kick the can down the road. Taxpayers in the future always pay the price for short-term decisions elected officials make today. We see it with the current jail. They did not allow extra space for future growth. They specifically eliminated bigger footings that would allow vertical expansion. They hamstrung future Boards and in doing so, hamstrung the taxpayers of today. You can blame Don Sehr if you want, but nobody knows who that is, and he’s been dead since 2006. So good luck.
I have tried very hard to make sure we do not do that to future Boards and future taxpayers. I think we need to design and build buildings with the idea that they are going to last at least 75 years. I think we need to take that same approach to building a jail. It needs to be built well, and it needs to be built big enough for things we simply cannot anticipate today.
Thankfully, On Thursday, April 23, the Board of Supervisors went into a closed session to discuss a real estate matter. Upon coming out of that session the Board voted 4-1 to empower the County Attorney’s Office to pursue the purchase of land for a new Sheriff’s Office and jail.
The vote was 4-1, with Supervisors Green, Remington, Green Douglass, and me voting yes, and Supervisor Fixmer Oraiz voting no.
Unfortunately, we cannot discuss our votes and the reasons for/against them until the property in question is under contract. At that time, Supervisors can explain their votes. And I cannot wait!
Meanwhile, I am very pleased that the Board took this important step!
Those are my thoughts. What are yours?
*DID YOU KNOW? I toured the Woodbury and Dallas County jails last year.
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 11:04 AM
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