Olmsted County Jail Expansion Near Completion

The project will add 62 beds to the current 108-bed, direct supervision facility, according to the Minneapolis-based architecture firm. The project cost $390,000, with general construction accounting for $348,000 and electronic security accounting for $42,000. Other members of the Olmsted County Detention Center expansion and renovation team include the Minnesota firms of BKBM, a Minneapolis-based structural engineer firm and Ericksen Ellison and Associates, St. Paul-based mechanical/electrical engineers.

KKE's Justice Team also is working on government/justice projects for Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater; Steele County Detention Center in Owatonna, MN; Federal Correctional Institution at Sandstone, MN; Fort Berthold Justice Center in New Town, ND; and the Barron County Justice Center in Barron, WI.

The Olmsted County center also houses pre-sentence and sentence detainees, as well as detainees for the US Marshals Services, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and other county and state organizations. The improvements will allow for nearly double the number of inmates now housed at the Olmsted facility, says KKE's lead designer Randy Lindemann, AIA, who helped design Olmsted's original facility in 1989. Other KKE staff involved in the project includes Larry Koch and Carey Ottman Everson.

The first phase includes converting the existing male work-release area into space for the male general population, changing the programs area into efficient office space, enclosing courtyards to create skylight-lit single bedrooms, and adding operable windows to the existing outdoor recreation area, Lindemann says.

The second phase will involve separating the male general population into two, smaller units with double bunks, adding six cells in the female unit and to the intake/special management/ administrative segregation unit, upgrading the electronic security system and creating more public visiting stations that use digital video conferencing technology.

KKE worked with Electronic Design Corp. to recommend the new video conferencing technology, which will allow for longer visits, including long-distance visits, while significantly reducing the staff time needed to find, secure and supervise face-to-face meetings.