Post Election analysis: Kent County Sheriff response to the millage defeat for the Kent County Jail

On Election Day voters in Kent County voted against the millage for the Kent County Jail, which appeared on the November 3rd ballot with this title – Kent County Millage Renewal and Increase Corrections and Detention Facilities.

I wrote about this millage effort, along with the organized effort to defeat said millage. The no vote on this millage is a clear indication that taxpayers do not have confidence in the Kent County Sheriff’s Office, that they reject government surveillance and that they oppose racial injustices perpetrated at the jail, especially their collaboration with ICE by engaging in detainers for ICE.

According to the Kent County Clerk’s office there were 174,341 votes (60.05%) against this millage, with 115,998 votes (39.95%) in favor. If you want to look at how the vote went in all 226 precincts you can see that breakdown at this link.

The day after the election the Kent County Sheriff’s Office posted a statement in response to the defeat of the millage. You can read the statement in its entirety here, but I wanted to point out two parts of the statement.

First, the statement says:

“Our corrections facility serves law enforcement agencies throughout Kent County. Its central intake operations provide shared booking, screening, custody, and care services. Helping residents understand those responsibilities and how they are funded will remain part of our work. We remain hopeful about our community’s continued partnership with the Sheriff’s Office.”

This part of the Sheriff’s Office statement is misleading in that it creates a narrative about how they want the public to view what they do. The language used in the above portion of the statement is administrative, but omits a great deal of the realities of what the Sheriff’s Office does, especially the role of the Kent County Jail. They also state they want continued partnership from the community. Lets be honest here, the only real partnership is with the other police departments in Kent County. The community at large does not partner with the Sheriff’s Office, especially since they have no say in the the funding, something that is decided by the Kent County Commission.

The second part of the statement I wanted to address states:

“I am proud of our deputies and staff, who do demanding work every day with professionalism, compassion, and dedication,” said Sheriff Bryan Muir. “We will continue supporting this team, working to provide the services our community expects and keeping the public informed as we plan for the future.”

Again, the language here is vague and clinical, with no indication that the Sheriff’s Office has a plan to truly engage the community to better understand what concerns the public has since the majority voted the millage down.

If the Kent County Sheriff’s Office really wants to know why 60% of voters voted against the millage then they might look at the three main objections to the millage that were part of the Urban Core Collective’s Power Fund, the group that ran the Vote No campaign.

There were three main objections to this millage:

Increased cost to taxpayers – An increase in taxes shows that the Sheriff’s Office has mismanaged public funds to run the jail, plus with the increased cost of living it is a kick in the teeth to the public to ask them to pay more for the Kent County Jail.

Racial Injustices that the jail perpetuates – The Kent County Sheriff’s office detains people for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as stated in their 2025 Policy and Procedures. In Kent County, Black people only make up 11.1% of the total population, but 47.5% of the incarcerated population. In 2025, 82% of charges at the time of booking at the Kent County Jail were for non-violent offenses; in other words, an overwhelming majority of people being held at the jail were being held for non-violent offenses. 53% of the charges at time of booking were for crimes of poverty.

Government surveillance – In February 2026, $750,000 of our tax dollars were used to develop the Real Time Intelligence Center (RTIC). The RTIC, which is housed in the Sheriff’s office, processes videos and information from Flock cameras and other Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR). They are using our tax dollars to surveil us without our consent. We didn’t vote for this. According to the Sheriff’s office, 63% of people are detained at the jail for 47 hours or less, indicating that the Kent County Jail serves as a turnkey operation, detaining a majority of people for a short time frame when they could be back in the community.

These are the reasons why people voted against the millage, elements that are completely absent from the Kent County Sheriff’s Office statement. The public needs to keep pressuring the Kent County Commission on these matters and demand that the county conduct a year-long process for participatory budgeting so that anyone living in the county can determine how we want our tax dollars to be spent.