Vote No on Prop L
Prop L is a 3/8-cent county sales tax. Its main purpose is to build a new 570-bed county jail, three times the size of the current one.
The ballot doesn't mention a jail
Read the wording before you vote.
What the ballot says
A county-wide sales tax of three-eighths of one percent "for the purpose of providing law enforcement services for the county," expiring December 31, 2042.
What the money is for
- Building a new 570-bed county jail
- Paying off the construction bond
- Jail operating costs
- Money set aside for future expansions
Checking the official claims
Each claim below is quoted from the ballot or county officials, then compared with the public record.
The tax is "for the purpose of providing law enforcement services for the county."
A jail is a law enforcement service, so the wording is technically correct. But the ballot never mentions a jail, even though building one is the main purpose of the tax. The sheriff and county commission have both described Prop L as the funding source for a new jail.
Sources: Boone County Notice of General Election; ABC 17, May 2026; Boone County Commission, July 9, 2026The new jail would provide "approximately 570 beds to meet the detainee housing demands on Boone County."
570 beds would hold today's population of about 400. The same press release says the jail is built for "at least three additional phases of expansion spanning decades." The plan assumes the number of people in jail will keep growing.
Source: Boone County Commission, July 9, 2026"The authorization for this sales tax shall expire on December 31, 2042."
The tax does end in 2042. The original proposal had no end date; the sunset was added in July. The jail is designed for expansions "spanning decades," and no funding plan has been published for those future phases or for running a jail three times larger after 2042.
Sources: Boone County Notice of General Election; KBIA, May 28 and July 9, 2026What the ballot doesn't say
- That the money builds a new jail
- That the jail would have 570 beds, three times the current number
- That it's designed for at least three more expansions
- That construction is about $90–100 million of the roughly $255 million collected
- That it adds to an existing 1/8-cent law enforcement tax, for a total of 1/2 cent
The cost
New sales tax through 2042
Applies to taxable purchases, including metered water, electricity, gas and home heating fuel.
Collected over 15 years
The county estimates $15 to $17 million a year. The jail itself is estimated at $90 to $100 million to build.
First phase of a new jail
The current jail can house about 190 people. The new one is designed for at least three more phases of expansion.
Construction cost per bed.
Per Boone County resident over 15 years (2020 Census population).
Collected for things other than construction: operating costs, bond payments and future expansion.
Who is being held
of people in the jail on Sept. 23, 2024 had an open warrant for failure to appear in court.
were held on low-level misdemeanor warrants that same day.
full-time mental health worker serves the jail.
of 405 Boone County detainees were housed in other counties' jails as of July 2026.
The jail is over capacity.
Supporters and opponents agree on that. Out-of-county housing cost Boone County $499,000 in 2022 and over $2.5 million in 2025.
The question on the ballot is how to fix it: build a bigger jail, or reduce the number of people held there.
How the proposal changed
- 1991
The current Boone County Jail opens with 134 secure beds and a separate 50-bed work-release center.
- 2002
Voters approve a 1/8-cent law enforcement sales tax, also called Proposition L.
- Nov. 2025
Sheriff Carey says the county will likely need 1,000 to 1,200 beds, four to five times the current jail.
- Spring 2026
The estimate is revised to about 800 beds plus a mental health unit, then to a 570-bed first phase built for future expansion.
- May 2026
At the sheriff's request, the commission moves the vote from August to November to give officials more time to build public support. The tax has no end date.
- July 9, 2026
The commission adds a sunset: the tax would end Dec. 31, 2042.
- Nov. 3, 2026
Election Day.
The last time the jail was crowded, the county studied it first
In the late 1990s Boone County faced the same problem. Before building anything, it formed task forces that looked at the whole system: arrests, bond, how fast cases moved, sentencing and alternatives to jail.
A 12-member task force including the court administrator, prosecutor, public defender, sheriff, mayor and others studies overcrowding and holds public meetings and jail tours.
Space inside the existing jail is remodeled and bunks are added, raising secure capacity from 134 to 210 without a new building.
A permanent oversight task force is appointed. The 2002 sales tax helps pay for more court services officers to run home detention and supervision.
Those steps, along with paying other counties to house overflow, helped keep the 1991 building in use. In May 2026, Commissioner Janet Thompson said the county's later jail overcrowding group "didn't meet as often, didn't really focus on those issues as much."
See the full history, 1991–2026
- 1991Jail opens Feb. 28 with 134 secure beds and a 50-bed work-release center. The jail and sheriff's complex cost about $6.8 million.
- 1997The Oxenhandler task force works for about three months. It recommends changes to reduce crowding without immediately building, while expecting more space would eventually be needed.
- 1999Work release moves to Reality House. Its old space is remodeled for secure housing, mainly for women. With added bunks, capacity rises from 134 to 210.
- 1999–2000A larger "Phase II" expansion is planned: a new housing pod, sheriff's building, and bigger kitchen, laundry, medical and classroom space, estimated at $12.7–12.9 million. The county keeps using the existing building instead.
- 2001A second task force reviews jail, courthouse, law enforcement and budget needs. Its report emphasizes alternatives to jail and permanent oversight.
- 2002–2004A permanent Judicial and Law Enforcement Task Force is appointed in May 2002. After the 2002 sales tax, Adult Court Services grows from three to five officers, and alcohol monitoring, GPS monitoring and supervised probation expand.
- 2011A review checks whether earlier recommendations were carried out: more summonses instead of arrests, more home detention, fee relief for people who can't afford monitoring, and added staff.
- 2017–2019A new population study lists 21 points for further study. The 2019 follow-up reports a maximum of 246 beds, with no more room for triple bunking.
- 2026The county proposes a 570-bed replacement jail funded by Prop L.
How we compare
People locked up: the U.S. and five other countries
The U.K., France, Germany, Japan and Canada have a combined 385 million people, more than the U.S. Together they hold about 318,000 people in prison or jail. The U.S. holds more than 1.8 million.
Boone County Jail beds
The sheriff's first estimate of 1,000 to 1,200 beds was later revised to about 800 beds plus a mental health unit. Boone County's population grew about 64% between 1990 and 2020.
What Miami-Dade County did instead
In 2000, Miami-Dade started the Criminal Mental Health Project. Police are trained to send people in a mental health crisis to treatment instead of jail, and the courts connect people to care. The program is the subject of the 2020 PBS documentary The Definition of Insanity.
Jail population. Bookings fell from 118,000 a year to 53,000.
The county closed one of its three main jails.
In jail costs avoided each year.
Re-arrest rate for people in the misdemeanor program.
Between 2010 and 2019, officers in the county's two largest police departments handled 105,268 mental health calls. They made 198 arrests and diverted 18,608 people from jail.
Miami-Dade is a much larger county than Boone, and its results came over two decades. But the model has been studied and copied around the country.
Why isn't this part of the conversation?
Prop L asks voters for $255 million over 15 years. Programs like Miami-Dade's have reduced jail populations and costs at the same time.
More facts and sources
Every number on this page comes from public records, news reports or published research. Here is more, with links so you can check it yourself.
Prop L
- Prop L adds 3/8 cent to an existing 1/8-cent law enforcement sales tax voters approved in 2002, for a total of 1/2 cent.KOMU 8
- The tax would start in 2027 and end Dec. 31, 2042. The original proposal had no end date. The sunset was added in July.Boone County Commission, ABC 17
- Construction is estimated at $90–100 million, paid with a 10-year bond. The rest covers operating costs and savings for future expansion.KOMU 8
- The new jail would take at least four years to build and is designed for three more phases of expansion "spanning decades if necessary."Boone County Commission
- Plans include 10 medical beds (up from 2) and housing for juveniles and people with mental illness.KOMU 8, ABC 17
Boone County Jail
- The current jail opened in 1991 with 184 beds. It now has 245, with about 190 usable.Columbia Missourian, Boone County Commission
- Out-of-county housing cost $499,000 in 2022, over $2.5 million in 2025 and over $1 million in the first quarter of 2026.Boone County Commission
- On Sept. 23, 2024, 7.5% of the 292 people in the jail were held only for missing court.Boone County Community Bail Fund
- The jail has one full-time mental health worker. One family told a public meeting their relative waited more than five years in jail for a state mental health bed.News Tribune
- There is currently no work release program to help reduce the jail population.News Tribune
Jails nationally
- 70% of people in U.S. jails in 2023 had not been convicted. Most were waiting for their case to be resolved.Bureau of Justice Statistics
- U.S. jails had 7.6 million admissions in one year. The average stay was 32 days.Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2023
- The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any democracy and the largest number of people locked up of any country.Prison Policy Initiative, World Prison Brief
- U.S. incarceration peaked at 2.3 million people in 2008.Bureau of Justice Statistics
What has worked elsewhere
- Miami-Dade has trained more than 7,600 officers in crisis intervention, the largest such program in the country.Pew Charitable Trusts
- Diversion cut Miami-Dade jail stays by 109,704 days a year, about 300 years of jail beds.Pew Charitable Trusts
- Police shootings in the City of Miami fell from 90 in the five years before crisis training to 30 in the five years after.Pew Charitable Trusts
- In New York City, text reminders cut missed court dates by 26% and prevented about 3,700 arrest warrants a year.J-PAL, University of Chicago Crime Lab
How we got these numbers
Every figure comes from a public record, a news report or published research, listed in the sources. Where we did math ourselves, such as cost per bed, the calculation is shown. Foreign prison totals are rounded from published rates and populations.
References
Vote No on L
To volunteer, get flyers or ask a question, contact No New Jail – Boone County.