A look inside the brand new $17 million Brookings County Detention Center

A ribbon cutting was held in Brookings Thursday for the county’s new addition to the detention center. 

The new $17-million addition was phase one of a two-part project with renovation of the existing facility happening next. The new addition includes a new sallyport, booking station, kitchen, jail cell pods and rooms for recreation and programs.  

“Our old jail was built back in 1975, and it’s in an older style of a pattern for a jail. It’s built on what we call linear pattern. The new jail is built to where it’s on a pod system. In our pod system, we can stand in one general location in the middle and be able to look throughout all of the, inside all the jail cells right from one location,” jail administrator Bart Sweebe said.

It’s just a good accomplishment. I have good staff. We probably had almost two years of just pre-planning. You know, what size fits Brookings. We try to estimate what our inmate population would be. You know, how long will this facility last? Will it last 10 years? Will it last 20 years?” sheriff Marty Stanwick said.

Once the entire project is complete, the facility will be able to hold a maximum of 85 inmates. They have around 30 inmates in the current facility.

They plan to move inmates to the new facility by the end of December or early January.  View the story on KELOLAND.