A second member of the Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Jail board is publicly voicing concerns over the proposed nearly $50 million dollar renovation of the aging facility.

“What I am saying is we don’t need to do an extensive renovation,” says jail board member Lisa Draine, who spoke before Charlottesville City Council on Jan. 17. “I feel like we can replace or repair some of the mechanical systems that are leading to some of the environmental concerns”.

The original jail was built in 1974 with two additions in following decades. The facility serves Charlottesville, Albemarle and Nelson counties. A tour of the facility in 2022 showed deplorable conditions including mold, chipping paint, and poor ventilation. The sole outdoor recreation area is a brick-walled space with a fiberglass roof, and jail superintendent Martin Kumer explained on a tour that an incarcerated person at the jail could potentially go two years “without feeling the sun on their skin.”

Draine has served on the board as the Charlottesville citizen representative since October 2021. She says the board’s discussions about the jail renovation expanded from simply replacing outdated mechanical systems to doing a full-scale renovation. While the estimated cost has been cited at about $49 million, Draine says it will actually be much higher over a 27-year period.

“What you can see now is that with interest it’s going to be closer to 73 million,” says Raine.

Draine’s concerns mirror those voiced last year by former jail board member Cyndra van Clief, who was the lone “no” vote against a resolution to notify the state that the jail would be requesting reimbursement for 25 percent of the estimated cost of renovation.

The Albemarle Board of Supervisors removed van Clief from her board position after that vote.

“I was doing my job in wanting to remind the board that we need to take the time to be mindful and deliberate,” Van Clief said at the time, noting that other board members shared her concerns but had voted in favor of the resolution, nonetheless.

Draine says she voted in favor of the resolution because she didn’t feel it was a commitment to move forward with the project; it simply kept the option open.

Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley has voiced his support for the renovation, particularly the addition of a mental health pod. He says despite declining numbers and his efforts to keep those numbers lower, there will always be people with mental health conditions who are not suited for alternatives to incarceration. The conditions for those people should be improved as much as possible, he says.

“Not everybody who has mental illness is automatically going to be someone who qualifies for treatment, or is motivated for treatment or could have treatment,” Hingeley said in a December interview on Charlottesville Right Now.

Draine disagrees.

“If we’re going to be putting this kind of money into the carceral system that we know disproportionately affects black and brown people and poor people, what does that say about our community values,” she asks.  “I would rather see a commitment to investing in solutions that actually get at the root causes of racial inequity and poverty. Affordable housing, opportunities for our youth, food insecurity, education.”

A final decision on the jail renovation is pending. Draine says the financial details will be presented to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 15. The General Assembly must approve the request for 25 percent reimbursement for the project and the jail board must go back to the three localities it serves for final approval later this spring.