The cost to build a new jail in downtown Baltimore — which would already be the most expensive state-funded project ever — has shot up by roughly $200 million, bringing the estimated price tag to nearly $1.2 billion.

The Maryland corrections department notified lawmakers of the price hike late last year in a report to legislative budget committees. Meanwhile, the future of the project appears to be uncertain, in light of budget shortfalls and other developments, including the recent evacuation of a separate Baltimore pretrial detention center that increasingly appears permanent.

The shuttering of the Maryland Reception, Diagnostic and Classification Center due to building issues has eliminated hundreds of beds from the city jail system. That matters because the planned facility, dubbed the Baltimore Therapeutic Treatment Center, had been scaled down due to financial concerns, from 1,462 beds to 854.

That means state taxpayers would incur a massive expense even though the new facility might not alleviate overcrowding concerns in jails. In addition to running state prisons, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services manages Baltimore pretrial facilities.

Brandon Stoneburg, spokesperson for Maryland’s Department of General Services, responsible for the operation and maintenance of state-run facilities, said in a statement this week that his agency and the corrections department are “currently evaluating the impact of the depopulation” of the pretrial detention center “on the broader DPSCS master plan of facilities.”

The therapeutic treatment center has been pitched as a sort of hybrid jail, hospital and mental health and substance use treatment facility for people facing criminal charges. The corrections department has said the new jail “reflects the department’s commitment to helping justice-involved individuals with serious addiction, medical and mental health issues.”

Corrections department officials have said the facility is needed to comply with the terms of a settlement stemming from a long-standing federal lawsuit over medical and mental health care in city jail facilities, even as the state’s lawyers have argued in court that the department is in compliance with that settlement.

That contradiction, along with a lack of clarity over who would staff the center, among other reasons, has drawn pushback from a coalition of criminal justice reform advocates and the union representing correctional officers.

Stoneburg attributed the rising price tag for the new jail to “increased costs driven by current market conditions including factors such as inflation, increased labor costs and increased material costs.” A spokesperson for the corrections department deferred questions about the planned jail’s uncertain future to the Department of General Services.

In the years since the jail was designed, Maryland’s financial outlook has grown bleaker. The state government is facing a projected $1.4 billion gap between revenues and expenses that the governor and lawmakers will need to close.

With elections looming for Gov. Wes Moore and lawmakers, they’re unlikely to rely on tax and fee increases to balance the budget. Instead, they are expected to look for targeted spending cuts. Moore must introduce his budget proposal to lawmakers by Jan. 21; they will review it and make changes before the end of their annual legislative session in April. Maryland’s budget is legally required to be balanced each year.

The corrections department has spent nearly $54 million on the planning phase of the new jail through the fiscal year 2025, according to a legislative analysis. Neither the chair of the House capital budget committee nor the Senate’s iteration could be reached for comment on the project.

Patrick Moran, president of AFSCME Council 3, which represents correctional officers at the pretrial facilities, said the enormous price tag of the planned jail would be better spent on upgrading, maintaining and staffing current state-run jails and prisons, which the union regards as unsafe.

“The state should not throw good money at a questionable and costly new project when we already have existing facilities that need an infusion of resources to operate,” Moran said.

Heather Warnken, executive director of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the University of Baltimore School of Law, has helped to organize a coalition of criminal justice reform groups that has pushed back on the plans for the jail.

Warnken said she was hopeful that the cost increase, along with Medicaid reforms aimed at continuity of care for people in the criminal legal system, “will finally put the brakes on this ill-conceived project.”

“It is extremely well-documented in Maryland and nationally how the criminal justice system becomes a catch-all for untreated behavioral health and addiction needs more effectively met in the community,” Warnken said in an emailed statement. “The tragic irony of using incarceration to address health issues that don’t belong there isn’t just that it’s more expensive and produces unnecessary suffering, but that it actually makes those problems worse.”

Baltimore Banner reporter Pamela Wood contributed to this report.