The Fight

Jacksonville has been planning to close and replace the 34-year-old John E. Goode Pre-Trial Detention Facility (500 E. Adams St., downtown) since at least 2024, when a special City Council committee found the jail plagued by overcrowding, staffing shortages, and outdated infrastructure (more than $12M spent on it over five years) and recommended a campus-style replacement away from downtown with on-site health/mental-health services — estimated to cost over $1 billion. In May 2025, private firms (HOK, Ajax Building Co., Sustainability Partners) submitted an unsolicited proposal to build the replacement. City CAO Mike Weinstein has said the new facility would require roughly 500 acres.

In December 2025, city officials began discussing whether to exclude neighborhoods with “hazardous” (HOLC Grade D) historical mortgage-security grades — the 1930s-40s redlining maps — from the site search. Councilmember Jimmy Peluso introduced Resolution 2026-0356 to put Council on record recommending the new jail be kept out of neighborhoods including Brooklyn, Durkeeville, the Eastside, LaVilla, Longbranch, Mixon Town, Moncrief, New Town, Philips, Robinson’s Addition, and Sugar Hill — all historically Black, redlined areas.

Council committees declined to advance the resolution through May 2026, and on May 26, 2026 the full Council voted it down 5-12 after emotional public comment. Opponents called it premature, arguing the city should wait for the site consultant’s report (expected to identify three finalist sites by January 2027) before drawing exclusion boundaries; supporters argued the vote signaled the city was unwilling to commit to avoiding another instance of siting corrections/carceral infrastructure in historically disinvested Black neighborhoods.

Key Details

• Facility being replaced: John E. Goode Pre-Trial Detention Facility, 500 E. Adams St. — current JSO 287(g) Jail Enforcement Model site
• Estimated scope: ~500 acres, cost potentially exceeding $1 billion
• Unsolicited proposal: HOK / Ajax Building Co. / Sustainability Partners (reported May 2025)
• Resolution: 2026-0356, sponsored by Jimmy Peluso
• Vote: Failed 5-12, May 26, 2026
• Neighborhoods named for exclusion: Brooklyn, Durkeeville, Eastside, LaVilla, Longbranch, Mixon Town, Moncrief, New Town, Philips, Robinson’s Addition, Sugar Hill
• Timeline: Site consultant process ongoing; three candidate sites expected by January 2027
• Why it matters: This is not (yet) a confirmed ICE/federal detention facility — it is a county jail replacement — but it is the successor site to a facility that currently runs 287(g) JEM booking-and-hold operations feeding ICE custody, so where it lands will directly shape Duval’s future immigration-enforcement capacity and its proximity to historically marginalized communities. Worth tracking as the site shortlist narrows in early 2027, since a large new campus-style facility could be positioned to absorb expanded federal/immigration hold functions.

Sources

• Jacksonville City Council votes down resolution aimed at keeping future jail out of historically redlined neighborhoods (News4Jax, May 27, 2026)
• City Council won’t pledge to keep jail out of redlined neighborhoods (Jax Daily Record, May 26, 2026)
• Council committees decline to commit to keeping future jail out of historically Black neighborhoods (Jax Daily Record, May 19, 2026)
• Jacksonville officials consider excluding areas with ‘hazardous’ mortgage security grades for new detention facility (News4Jax, Dec 13, 2025)
• City of Jacksonville receives unsolicited proposal from private companies to replace jail (Jax Daily Record, May 8, 2025)