Vermillion, South Dakota – Clay County Sheriff Andy Howe has been lobbying for a new jail for several years, citing concerns about the aging jail that was built in 1912.
A new law enforcement center, funded by a $42.8 million county bond approved in 2022, will now house a new jail, police station, sheriff’s office, county emergency manager, and Clay County Dispatch. It is scheduled to be completed by October.
The old jail had a number of issues. Howe spoke about the facility in 2021, highlighting the issues of age and space throughout the jail.
The visitation rooms were small, not ADA accessible, and too close to the sheriff’s offices, raising concerns about privacy while discussing cases.
Howe explained that there were times when the jail was so overcrowded that all available floor space was covered in cots to make room for people to sleep.
There wasn’t enough storage space, so bags and totes were piled in hallways and corners.
The original cells were cramped, with a broken sink. Inmates had only a small day room for recreation.
The jail had structural issues, with water leaking down the wall due to exterior cracks. The jailer’s station was down a hallway, out of sight of the cell block. The only functioning showers were located down a hallway in the booking area.
Even leaving the jail for something as simple as court was difficult because inmates could only exit through the jailer’s workspace.
Plumbing issues were common, and Howe stated at one point that the inmates’ conditions may raise human rights concerns.
The new jail, which is still under construction but is nearing completion, aims to address all of these issues.
“We’re looking at possibly being able to start training and moving into the facility toward the end of September, early October,” Howe told me. He mentioned that they could move into the new jail during Dakota Days, a busy weekend that would serve as a baptism by fire for the new facility.
“In our old jail, we had 20 beds,” said Howe, noting that there had only been 14 prior to a 1980s addition. “We never had anywhere specific to intake our short term holdings, so we always basically had to displace inmates to have a new arrival.”
According to Howe, the new jail has separate rooms for intake and housing.
“We can accommodate 54 inmates. And that can be divided as needed between males and females,” explained Howe. “We have housing units from four inmates to eight inmates in each housing unit.”
They also have individual cells, as well as a wing for up to eight work release inmates that is completely separate from the rest of the housing to prevent contraband from being introduced.
Clay County does not require 54 beds, but Howe believes the county will continue to house Turner County inmates, as it has for many years.
“Other counties, even those with jails, frequently require beds. “Sometimes it’s just a matter of classifying or segregating inmates,” Howe explained. “There might be co-defendants or sometimes you have a population issue where you can just not accept any more females.”
Howe also mentioned that the US Marshals frequently use county jails to house federal inmates.
“I think that we should be able to produce some revenue for Clay County by housing other county inmates until the need for those beds becomes greater for us,” he told me.
The jail was also designed with potential expansion in mind. “We have a pre-planned addition that will go outside of the current facility rather than up. “We would go outside, and with that in mind, we could essentially double our capacity,” Howe explained.
Indeed, the facility was designed to accommodate up to 100 inmates, with adequate storage space for belongings and a kitchen capable of feeding up to 100.
Howe clarified that, while an addition is planned, it is more of a ‘just in case’ measure than something he expects to be built in the immediate future.
“That’s going to be a future sheriff and future county administrator, I’m sure,” says Howe. “I believe we built this jail and facility for over 50 years. I believe it was designed to serve Clay County for a long time. But there may come a time when an addition is required; at that point, those making that decision in the future will have this option available to them, and we will not have limited them by failing to plan ahead.”
When the county passed a bond to build the new law enforcement center, they decided to keep the old courthouse operational. A previous bond to replace both the courthouse and the jail, which are housed in the same building, failed.
If the county does reconsider the courthouse, Howe says the law enforcement center is designed to accommodate it.
“This building (the law enforcement center) was built structurally to take a second floor that would house county offices and courts,” according to Howe. There is already space for an elevator shaft and stairwell, which is currently designated for storage and a hallway.
One of the most serious safety concerns in the old jail was a lack of visibility. The jailers can see everything in the new jail except for the work release housing.
“They can literally just turn and see almost every inmate in the facility at any given moment,” according to Howe. “This jail was designed for to maximize the efficiency of staff so we don’t have to increase staff a lot and have multiple housing units or anything like that.”
According to Howe, the only staff additions needed at this time are new positions to run the doors from outside the cell block.
While the jailers in the block will have remote control over all of the doors in the block, a separate office will also have control of those doors, as well as sole control over the doors into and out of the cell block in the event that inmates take control of the jailer station within the block.
Howe also explained the qualifications for life upgrades for inmates held in the jail.
“We’ve built technology into these cells to monitor heart rate and respiration. We have a better ability to monitor inmates’ behavior. “We just have more room for them,” Howe explained.
The new jail also features a large recreation room and improved medical facilities. Inmates will be able to attend court via video conference room, and the cell block will receive natural light from skylights high in the ceiling.
“Our old jail provided no recreational opportunities. We had a treadmill in the day room, but they had to be removed from their cell to use it,” Howe explained. “Now we’ll have a day room outside their secure cells where they can move around and interact with other inmates in their housing unit. But, on a daily basis, they will be escorted to a recreation room where they will be able to exercise and get some fresh air.
The cells themselves are also a significant upgrade.
“We now have adequate floor space in each cell. “We have writing surfaces in each cell,” Howe explained. “They’ll have more elbow room and won’t be as close together. We have more space for programs like classes, meetings, and training that we may be able to provide to staff or inmates.”
Currently, the majority of Clay County’s inmates are held in other counties. “We felt that we had made a public record of enough deficiencies in the old jail that we couldn’t continue to operate it safely. So we changed the Clay County Jail’s mission to be more of a holdover,” Howe explained. “We only hold up to 72 hours (in the existing jail).”
Howe has been Clay County’s sheriff for 22 years. “I was told that I’m the king of making do,” he joked. “You know, we’ve been making do in this old jail and basically making it work despite its flaws for so long—that’s about the only way I knew how to do it. It was a shift to really focus on doing things right in this jail rather than just taking the easy route.”
The construction of the new facility is very important to him.
“It’s kind of a, you know, hopefully a completion and not just some ongoing problem where just one problem replaces another,” Howe told reporters. “It’ll probably be a weight off my shoulders in terms of trying to resolve these jail issues that I’ve been basically dealing with my entire career.”
The new jail is larger than the old one, and it may be more of an upgrade than the average citizen would have expected. But not for Howe. “I believe it is what I had in mind. “This jail is essentially a combination of what I liked about all of the jails I’ve visited,” he said. “We found elements from all of those jails and combined them into this one. So that’s basically what I had in mind.”
Howe wants people to think differently about jails. “People think of jails as bars. Our old jail had those old gray bars. It was built in 1912, and that was the way they did things back then. There are no bars in this jail,” he explained.
Instead, the new jail features plenty of impact-resistant glass, steel doors, and more open space. “But it’s as secure, if not more so,” he added.
Howe credits many people with getting the law enforcement center built.
“Many people have come together to work on this. Beckenhauer Construction has been fantastic, and their desire to make everything perfect has been refreshing,” Howe said. “Crystal Brady, our police chief, has been a partner throughout all of this as well as our county commission.”
