Jasper County Jail expansion nears completion

A nearly $13 million dollar expansion to the Jasper County Jail is nearly complete.

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office says the expansion will add space for another 100 inmates, bringing capacity to just over 280.

The kitchen has also been enlarged and revamped and additional space has been gained for medical to function more efficiently. That even includes new areas to segregate sick inmates.

There has also been an extensive HVAC system installed throughout the jail that has added UV filters. The UV filters are to filter the air, which is supposed to greatly diminish the risk of air-borne type of viruses and improve air quality in general.

Sheriff Randee Kaiser says he is looking forward to the new treatment center for those struggling with addiction. “Something I’m most excited about is being able to offer the opportunity for people who have addiction-related problems to come in to the jail, and if they choose, and if they’re eligible to, receive some sort of addiction treatment.”

Kaiser says this program should be launched within the next 30 days. “If they want treatment, they could opt-in to it for 120 days…obviously there are going to be variations of that available so if someone wanted to be in-patient for 60 days and then out-patient for 60 days we can help arrange that as well.”

They say the expansion was necessary to increase jail capacity, as the small size currently, is insufficient. There will be more space for visitation and new high tech options such as video telehealth and tele-psychiatry.

Back in 2019, voters approved the extension of a sales tax that paid for this project.