Case Study | Master Planning: Hamilton County Correction Campus

Hamilton County’s Correction Campus faced two challenges: 1) whether the existing 30-acre campus could accommodate the County’s increasing criminal justice needs for the next 50 years, and 2) determining the appropriate mix of detention programs and facilities that would meet needs while allowing for future expansion.

Joe Mrak worked as the Principal in Charge, Architect of Record, and Lead Planner on the project. The first phase of the project was conducting a comprehensive review of all statistics related to the Hamilton County criminal justice system. Once the team had a detailed and accurate understanding of the County’s future needs, they determined that the current and future criminal justice detention needs could be accommodated on the existing site for 50-plus years. They then proposed a five-phase masterplan to allow for continual expansion of the on-site detention facilities with the foresight and flexibility to allow for additional expansion to accommodate any changes in the justice system and legislative changes.

The first three phases of the masterplan were promptly executed over a 7-year, $70 million dollar project, resulting in six buildings: Juvenile Services Center, Jail North (Intake and Support Services), Jail South (Sheriff’s Office, 911, EMA), Community Corrections, Minimum Security Housing Renovation (Old Jail), and Training and Support Facility. The completed project accommodated the campus’ growth for the next 20 years.