Pennington County Commissioners approve design for jail tower project

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - With the Rapid City area experiencing growth in the last few years, the Pennington County Sheriff's Office is seeking a jail expansion.

After the expansion was presented to the Pennington County Commission last month, it was revisited at Wednesday's commission meeting, with the Commission approving the design for the Pennington County Jail Tower Project.

Pennington County Buildings and Grounds Director Davis Purcell said the current jail is dealing with infrastructure issues and has been over capacity for the last ten years.

"We need to have another jail to be able to move some inmates over and repair the infrastructure in the original jail. As well as plan for the future with that additional jail by adding more beds for the Sheriff and RCPD and also for some other counties that we support," Purcell said.

The proposed $168,000,000 project would add three additional floors and add more than 600 beds.

"By allowing us to design the whole jail, we can really refine our costs on the front end and hopefully drive that number down. Obviously, that's the goal, right? It's a huge burden on the taxpayers, and we understand that," Purcell added.

He says the project design will cost more than $7,000,000.

The Commission was not ready to approve construction for the project yet, saying they need further review.