By Madison Willis
Rapid City Journal, S.D.
RAPID CITY, S.D. — Pennington County’s booming population growth has pushed its jail to the brink, forcing officials to grapple with severe overcrowding and consider a costly expansion.
Since 2010, the county has seen a dramatic increase in residents, putting a strain on the existing detention center.
The county has consistently outpaced the national average for population growth, especially from 2020 to 2024, where it reached an annual growth rate of 1.47%, compared to the national rate of 0.53%, according to a study from Elevate Rapid City.
As of 2024, the county’s population is estimated to be 115,645, however Pennington County Buildings and Grounds Director Davis Purcell said the county’s population is projected to continue to grow and reach well over 121,000 by 2029.
“Another population factor to consider is the additional 4,000 people that will be moving into Ellsworth Air Force Base in 2025 through 2030,” Purcell said.
Pennington County Commissioners reviewed three different possible jail expansion types Aug. 15 . The most extensive proposal would add about 600 beds to the facility in a new three-story structure.
Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller said it was discovered back in 2021 the current jail has nearly $28 million worth of infrastructure issues, including plumbing, HVAC and electrical. It is an issue that has yet to be resolved and has since increased to a projected cost of $36 million due to inflation, Purcell added.
“We’re kind of a little bit of a ticking time bomb with some of the infrastructure,” Mueller said.
Mueller told the commission each of the proposals will include a plan to improve current infrastructure issues while growing the location.
“Back in 2014 we were up against our operational capacity and then since about 2016 we’ve been over that fairly consistently and in 2016 we were actually over our full capacity, so that causes lots of other internal issues in the jail,” Mueller said.
There are currently 624 beds in the Pennington County Jail , including the triple bunks. The jail’s full capacity is at 601 beds and since exceeding the threshold Mueller said it has resulted in the jail having to triple bunk inmates and exhaust other resources.
A decade ago, the average daily population was just below 85%. That rose to over 100% in 2017, 98% in 2018, and 103% in 2019. After a brief dip down to 83% in 2020, numbers rose again and rested at just over 95% in 2021 and 2022.
Mueller’s goal is to bring jail populations back down to 85%. The recommended level is 80%, Mueller said.
Pushing to see this proposal come into fruition, Mueller admitted the project will be expensive and that the community can’t afford to shut down expansion. Delaying funding for the proposed jail expansion could have serious consequences for Pennington County, he said.
Without immediate action, Mueller warned of escalating costs for taxpayers and a heightened risk to public safety.
“I can tell you as the sheriff that I think that we cannot afford to not do this and we cannot afford to not do this correctly,” Mueller said.
Proposed plans
Each proposal includes a new jail tower between the original jail, jail annex and parking structure on St. Joseph Street.
The first proposed design from BKV Group includes a housing floor with 148 additional beds, a new mechanical, electrical and security floor, a completed vehicle sally port and infrastructure improvements to the first floor of the main jail. Total base cost for the design is $65 million, with a 26- to 32-month construction time frame.
Purcell warned the commission this option would require additional infrastructure projects such as updates to security and electronics in the jail and jail annex for $4.2 million, while remodeling the intake center and healthcare area of the lower level of the jail would cost $15.5 million.
The total base cost with these additional designs would come to $85 million.
The second design brings in all of the elements of the first one, with the addition of a second floor with another 148-bed housing floor. The total base cost for the design is $92 million, with the required additions that would have to be implemented later on it would come to $112 million.
The third option would further expand the two previous proposals with the addition of adding shelled out third- and fourth-floor housing. Purcell clarified these two additional floors will not have beds in them after construction, providing the option to expand if needed.
Total base cost for this design would be $109 million; with future additions, its total cost is $168 million.
A history of constant expansion
In a frontier town, the presence of a jail was a sure sign of civilization, a stark reminder that even in the untamed wilds, law and order were beginning to take root. Historical records indicate the first jail in Pennington County was a modest log structure situated at the intersection of Sixth and St. Joseph streets. When Rapid City became the county seat in 1878, the jail was relocated to the Pennington County Courthouse.
After two fires, voters approved a 1921 bond issue for a new courthouse and jail that cost $500,000. The jail had a 16-person cell block on each of its two floors. The 32-person capacity wasn’t enough after a certain point, and the jail added four sleeping bunks to each side of each cell.
“The space was so tight only one person could stand at a time. On busy weekends, as many as could fit were squeezed into cells,” the Pennington County Jail’s historical webpage stated.
In 1971, an addition to the 50-year-old facility added two maximum security cell blocks and three other cells were added to meet the needs of the growing community.
The first national jail census in 1971 recorded 51 daily inmates. Population climbed to more than 100 a day, and two prisoners sued in 1980 for overcrowding and living conditions. By 1984, in compliance with court order, inmates were shipped to other counties.
After two years of construction, a new $10.2 million jail opened in 1989. It doubled the previous jail space. The county used the 90,000-square-feet, 236-person capacity jail to house local inmates. They also began to rent out space to the state penitentiary, other counties and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Inmate counts exceeded 200 in 1995. In 1999, the jail was reconfigured and capacity went from 236 to 276. A decade later, the jail had to ship inmates to other counties, and overcrowding became a problem again by 2000.
In the fall of 2006, a four-story, multi-level security facility opened, eventually accommodating 328 beds. This new facility is referred to as the jail annex and it connects to the original jail. Medical facilities were added to the $10.2 million annex.
By 2014, the jail daily inmate count surpassed 400. In 2015, Pennington County, with its 624-bed jail complex, was selected as a finalist for a MacArthur Foundation grant project to safely reduce jail populations for low-level offenders. In 2017, $1.75 million was awarded for the Safety and Justice Challenge.
The jail also recently underwent renovations to the current building to update laundry and kitchen services.
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