The Cochise County Board of Supervisors voted to start planning a new jail next to the existing facility in Bisbee.
At a special July 10 meeting, about a dozen Cochise County residents urged the Board to keep the jail in its current location off State Route 80, citing concerns a new location would create longer commutes for employees and complicate inmate transport.
The county was considering six possible locations including building the jail near Benson, Tombstone, Sierra Vista, and Douglas, or a new site in Bisbee near the County Administration Complex, according to the Jail Planning Services report by consulting firm Chinn Planning.
Board Chair Frank Antenori made a motion to wait to approve the location and requested a more detailed cost-benefit analysis, but that motion failed and the existing jail site at 203 N. Judd Drive was approved 2-1, with Supervisors Kathleen Gomez and Tom Crosby voting yes.
“I'm just saying that I am not convinced that we've gotten all the information that we need to make a good, fiscally conservative decision,...” Antenori said. “Last thing I want to do is have my sons have to deal with having to build a new jail 25 years from now because it wasn't put in the right spot.”
However, the new jail still depends on voter approval of a new jail tax this fall.
The county recently settled a lawsuit that alleged inactive voters were disenfranchised when the tax passed the first time in 2023. The tax is still in place, but will stop being collected July 31, as per the settlement agreement.
Residents will vote again on the tax on November 4, but if the tax fails, county officials said the jail plans will stop.
“If you don't get a positive vote, you don't get a jail. It's that simple,” Antenori said.
If the half-cent tax passes, it will go back in place on July 1, 2026. It passed the first time with 52% voter approval.
Antenori said the planning committee is working to finalize the project’s total cost so it can be included in the voter publicity pamphlet. The length and cost of construction could determine how long the tax stays in place.
Residents have until Aug. 6 to submit arguments for and against the proposed tax.
