Steele County announced Saturday that it would be looking into the feasibility of a regional jail.

Monday, November 01, 1999

Steele County announced Saturday that it would be looking into the feasibility of a regional jail. Spokespeople for the county noted that several other counties were looking at this joint venture with them; one of those counties is Mower County.

Mower County Sheriff Barry Simonson said today he believed looking into the joint venture was not a bad idea.

"At some point, Mower County is going to have to do something," Simonson said. "The way things have been going, we may have to look at a new jail.

"We’ve been at capacity several times this year," Simonson said, noting that the jail had only hit its capacity a few times in the past several years, before this year.

Steele County is the driving force behind ongoing research to see if a regional facility would meet the needs of the area. The county applied for and received a grant to research and study the regional facility concept.

"Steele County is in desperate straits," Simonson said. "They have an obsolete jail."

Steele County presented the idea to Mower County commissioners, the sheriff and jail administrators. Based on the presentation, the board voted to participate in the research, Simonson said.

"Our involvement is going to be in talking with them, in answering and asking questions," he said.

There is no cost to Mower County, and participating in the study does not lock the county into participating in a regional facility. However, a statement by Tom Shea, Steele County Commissioner, indicated that if any of the counties decided the regional facility wouldn’t work for them, "it probably won’t work for any of us."

The jail as considered would be a 200-bed jail, with programming to reduce repeat offenses and possible technology assets to provide for video arraignment.

Ultimate ownership and placement of the facility hasn’t been considered yet.

Simonson said he could see several good points to such a facility.

"I could see this being a good deal for someone sentenced to six months," he said.

Mower County would want to keep its current facility for people sentenced to shorter terms who enjoy work release, or Huber, privileges.

"Community based corrections is the buzzword these days," Simonson said. "For someone serving 30 days on a bed checks charge, who can have work release here, sending them out of the area would probably make them lose their job and can have a bad effect on their marriage and family life."

He noted that jail sentences are for less than one year, to be served typically in a county or city facility, and are not the same as a prison sentence, which is typically out of area and is for longer than one year.