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Mobridge building basis for new jail concept


The former Mobridge Shopko building, pictured here in 2019, is a proposed location for a new regional jail.

Walworth County Commissioners heard a new proposed concept for a regional jail that would be located in the former Shopko building.
Commissioner Kevin Holgard, who is also a member of the Walworth County Jail Committee, presented a concept in which a consortium, made up of all counties with contracts with Walworth County, to be involved financially from the beginning.
The consortium member counties, would each be responsible for a number of the 10 shares of the cost of the project, depending on the annual daily inmate numbers required by those counties. For instance, Walworth County, which has the most daily inmates housed at the jail annually, would be responsible for three shares of $500,000 each, for $1.5 million. Corson County would be responsible for two shares, based on their daily inmate numbers. Each of the other five counties that use the facility would be responsible for one share each.
Holgard said the consortium could purchase the 50,400 square foot commercial building and the land in Mobridge from the owners for $1.7 million.
He explained that the interior of the building is wide open, with several walk in coolers and freezers that could be used in the kitchen area and those not needed could be sold.
Holgard said he spoke to a representative from Trust Built, with whom the committee has worked with involving the building of cells, who agreed to work with the committee on a cell-pod design concept. He said each pod, made up of five cells each, would cost from $30,000 to $35,000 each. Depending on the size of the jail required, building the pods would cost from $700,000 for four pods of double-bunked cells to house 40 inmates, to $1.4 million for eight pods to house 80 inmates.
The infrastructure of the project, including plumbing, electrical, doors and cameras is estimated at $2.9 million.
The total estimated cost of the project would be about $6 million, divided into the 10 $500,000 shares, with each county responsible for the funding of those shares. Basically, if they are in agreement, the project would be paid for upfront, with the county members paying for their funding at the county level. Holgard said the payment on a $500,000 loan at 0.05% would be about $28,000 per year.
The size of the jail would depend on a contract with the U.S. Marshal’s Service, for inmate housing at the facility. If the project could offer everything the U.S. Marshal’s Service requires, negotiations for an increase in the daily inmate housing cost to $85 per day would be needed. Depending on that contract, there is enough room in the building to construct cell pods for as many as 60 per day if needed. The income from the Marshal inmates would pay the annual operating costs, with a little profit with this concept.
The concept depends on the number of U.S. Marshal inmates daily, which would cover the operational costs of this concept, according the numbers presented.
Other questions, such as number of staff needed to man the jail, would also depend on the number of inmates housed per day. Meal and laundry service would also depend on the size of the jail.

Commissioner Marion Schlomer said there is enough room in the building and with the land, that recreation areas and storage options are available. He said the possibility of expansion is also there once the infrastructure in added.
Holgard said if the jail were to be built in the existing building the advantage of having it within a block or two of Mobridge Regional Hospital and Clinics would also be an advantage and a cost savings.
“Going over and over the numbers, we (the committee) have come up with a solution to this jail issue that makes the most sense,” said Holgard. “The jail budget for this year is $1.078 million for this year. The cost savings for one year of operating the current jail is a savings of $1.1 million per year makes it worth looking into.”
He said transportation to and from court in Selby would one of the disadvantages, but the cost savings would far outweigh that disadvantage.
Commissioner Jim Houck said he would like to see the jail stay in Selby, and said he would like to see an engineer’s study of the shape of the building before the discussion proceeded, but it was worth exploring.
The commission agreed as a group to explore the concept and present it to the other county representatives and the Mobridge City Council, before they could move forward.

Court costs
Commissioners also heard Judge Scott Myren explain why the system used by Walworth County concerning court appointed attorney assignments and payments works for the county. He also explained the disadvantages of creating a public defender’s office to deal with indigent offenders.
One of the biggest disadvantages he explained were the child abuse and neglect cases. He said sometimes, depending on the situation, it may take four or five attorneys to represent members of the families, depending on the number of children and fathers involved in these cases. Because sometimes there are multiple fathers involved in this type of case, each needs to have competent representation without conflict.
He said most counties in South Dakota work with the current system, with the judge assigning attorneys to each case and reviewing the vouchers presented for billing in those cases.
Myren told the commissioners it works to ensure that each defendant gets the representation granted to them by the U.S. Constitution.

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