First look: Hard Rock tower in downtown Jacksonville

[Ken_FSU]

Had the Berkman 2 been completed, it would have blocked eastward views from Berkman 1, and had the same view of the jail. The police/sheriff HQ has already moved to the Florida Blue Tower on Riverside Avenue, in Brooklyn. Relocation of the Pre-Trial Detention Facility (aka 'the jail') awaits some studies, and finding a few hundred million dollars.

I think the hope is that a private prison company will pay for much of the new facility - allowing those hundreds of millions to be applied to a new convention center on the site.

There was actually a hint of that idea in the package presented by the Hard Rock folks at the DDRB meeting last week.

I hate the for-profit prison industry, but I think you may be the only path to replacing the downtown jail.

I'd rather see us privatize our utilities than privatize our prison system. Particularly when you look at how many mentally ill people get caught in the dragnet. As a city, we're only as good as how we treat the lowest of our citizens. Too many stats about inflated prison sentences, increased violence and recidivism, dime-store untrained staff, decreased contact with the outside world, etc.

[jaxlongtimer]

^ Only two typical options with a for-profit prison company:  Charge more than a government run one to give a 10% to 20+% return to investors after taxes paid or cut corners everywhere to equal the government expenses and still have a 10% to 20+% return to investors after taxes.  No miracles here, City will pay more for less with a for-profit.  Another factor is financing:  Can the for-profit tap into tax exempt bonds like government or non-profits?  If not, there is another disadvantage of several percentage points.

This is the same common result for hospitals, nursing homes, schools and any other for-profit competing with government or NGO's that don't need to make a profit, can issue tax-exempt bonds and not pay taxes.

For-profits, in theory, can claim to be more efficient, less bureaucratic, work at scale if they have multiple facilities, be more nimble... all good but not necessarily enough to offset what they need to achieve the returns for attracting adequate capital.