Pennington County sheriff says community cant afford to stall jail expansion [Video]

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller is advocating for a jail expansion. He says population increases at the jail and outdated facilities make an expansion necessary.

The proposed jail expansion was brought before the Pennington County Commission Tuesday morning and highlighted three different possible expansion types. The most extensive proposal would create more than 600 beds and add three additional floors to the building.

Mueller says plumbing, electrical and H-VAC issues have been persistent in the jail for a while but what is most concerning are capacity issues.

“Our full capacity is at 601 beds and we’ve been at or above that consistently since 2014 and really since 2017. That causes a lot of issues for the jail, the inmates, for the staff, and for the facility itself. So we’ve known for a long time that we’ve needed to expand on that,” Mueller said.

Mueller noted …