- February 10, 2025
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As plans move forward to address the increasingly crowded Flagler County Inmate Facility, officials are working to weather a spike in female inmates during the month of November.
Monday afternoon, there were 23 females in the single cell block designated for women. That same morning, 26 women had occupied the cell. It’s meant to hold 14 inmates.
On the same date in September, there were 14 female inmates in the jail. October also saw numbers below 20.
To compensate for the spike, tables for eating and recreation have been removed from the cell to make way for extra cots for inmates. Currently, there’s no room for female inmates in their cell to be except for on each of their cots or bunk beds, said Becky Quintieri, the prison’s director.
Judges, attorneys, probation officers and public offenders are working together to expedite trial times to keep inmates moving through the facility, she said. But with all the cooperation among officials, explaining the increase in female offenders is hard for anyone to do.
Currently, Flagler County is moving forward with plans to expand its inmate facility. A committee made of representatives from the Sheriff’s Office, county administration and the county’s engineering department has evaluated six architectural firms who have expressed interest in crafting a solution for the jail.
In December, the committee will present its recommendation, CRA Architects, to the Flagler County Board of County Commissioners. The committee ranked its top firm based on qualifications alone, not price, said Carl Laundrie, communications manager for Flagler County.
If the board approves this firm, it will move forward with a scope of work project that will address the jail’s insufficient space for inmates.
If the scope of work project progresses without complication, a design plan could be completed within nine to 18 months, Laundrie said. This plan will likely be an addition to the current inmate facility.
Then, assuming that the County Commission passes this design plan, the timeframe for construction would be about the same, Laundrie said.
“It’s hard to have a hard, fast timeframe for a project like this,” Laundrie said. “However, with every day that goes by, we have to carefully review who goes to the jail and who doesn’t. We’re overcrowded, and we’re trying to fix that as fast as we can.”
Laundrie said circuit judges are reviewing criminal offenders closely in determining if they will be sent to prison to alleviate some of the strain on the facility.
“They try to review things so that the people who really need to be in jail are in jail, and the people who ordinarily would be incarcerated but are not a threat to the community aren’t in jail,” Laundrie said.
The jail project will be funded by the half-cent sales tax the county levied without a public vote in October.
The tax will take effect Jan. 1. The county will likely seek a loan to cover construction costs for the jail in anticipation of revenue to be generated by the 20-year sales tax, Laundrie said.
As plans move forward, Quintieri said she’s depending on her staff and other Flagler County officials to be flexible.
“I can’t speak enough about how much the judges and others are working with us to keep the population where it is,” she said. “We’re over capacity, and we’re crowded, but we’re making do.”
