Pennington County plans jail expansion addressing overcrowding and infrastructure

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Since 2014, the Pennington County Jail has been running at full or near capacity, prompting the county to look at expanding the facility.

The plan to expand the jail has been in the works since 2017, with remodeling projects happening here and there. The current project will help fix some of the jail infrastructure issues, along with remodeling the current booking area and adding an additional 148 beds to housing and 30 beds to booking. The plan will also allow the addition of more floors to the jail.

“So that would get our capacity needs closer to meeting our present needs right now, but the footprint that we’re designing will be able to house additional jail floors in the future to handle growth for the next 40 years in Pennington County,” said Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller.

Currently, plans are still in the works, but people won’t see major movement for the time being.

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