Minnehaha County Jail Expansion

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Due to persistent increases in inmate populations at the Minnehaha County Jail, JLG Architects and BWBR are currently planning a significant expansion to the existing facility. The current Jail set the bar when it was originally designed 15 years ago and one of the design teams goals was to maintain that plan and staff efficiency, as well as the state-of-the-art functionality that makes the existing Jail work so well.

The primary goal was to add 320 beds to the existing 400 bed count. A number of support functions that remained in the original 1980’s Public Safety Building are woefully inadequate, out of date and lacked proximity to the cell tower. So, another major goal of the project is to relocated and enhance support spaces such as the vehicle sally port, prisoner intake, medical and Jail Administration & Staff Support spaces.