After Escape Attempt, Jail Options Weighed

An Adams County Board committee will consider long-range alternatives for improving the county jail after a July escape attempt.

The Quincy Herald-Whig reports that a committee of four county board members and Sheriff Brent Fischer will discuss options for the jail built in 1950.

A new jail could cost as much as $25 million.

Discussions — underway for years — intensified after the July 27 escape attempt by three inmates in which a guard was injured.

The jail is built in seven sections on the third, fourth and fifth floors of the courthouse.

The county applied in 2005 for a $10 million state grant to build a 208-bed jail, but it was rejected.

Officials then paid $50,000 for an updated jail-use study in case other money became available.