COLUMBUS (WCMH) – The Franklin County Sheriff and Commissioners broke ground on a new jail site on Monday.

It’s located on the city’s west side on Fisher Road.

Right now, the new site is about 24 acres of dirt, but officials say once it’s fully complete it’ll be much more than just a state of the art building. Their focus is on expanding programming to help prevent inmates from coming back to jail.

“If we have a revolving door or people coming back and forth, in and out of jail, we haven’t done our job,” said Commissioner Marilyn Brown.

She said the new jail is more than just a building to warehouse inmates.

“They’re going to get out and if we don’t give them opportunities to succeed when they get out, guess what, they come back to jail,” she said.

Brown said the new facility will focus on offering mental health services, addiction treatment and vocational programs.

“They can get well, get trained and get into a job and contribute back as they come back as our neighbors and friends,” she said.

Franklin County officials said the first phase of the project includes 900 beds for inmates. That will allow the closure of the current downtown jail, which opened in 1969.

The cost is $175 million, funded by a quarter-cent sales tax that began in 2013.

Future construction will eventually lead to more than 2,000 beds and the closure of the Jackson Pike jail facility.

“The new design it’s more like a classroom in a school where you have a teacher in front and students. They see everything going on,” said Sheriff Dallas Baldwin.

He said the new design concept allows for direct-supervision of inmates. It will also incorporate a new classification system, so staff can sort inmates based on their risk and services they might need.

“In classification, you don’t just separate inmates by type of charge. You’ve got a lot of other factors, potential violence, things like that you want to address,” said Sheriff Baldwin.

The new jail will open in late 2019. Phase 1 of the project will be complete by spring 2020.