Buchanan County shows off new jail

The public was given a peek at the new Buchanan County Jail on Saturday during an open house.

About 300 people toured the structure. Some snacked on peanut butter cookies as members of the Buchanan County Sheriff's Office guided them around the building.

The facility, which will house inmates and serve as work space for law enforcement staff, was financed by a $4.5 million bond passed in 2007. It was built onto the county courthouse.

Sheriff Bill Wolfgram said the jail was a necessary investment for the county.

“It's a jail ... this is not something that anybody wanted to spend money on,” Wolfgram said.

People sometimes want the work of law enforcement to be out of sight and out of mind, he said. But as the bond debate wore on, people began to realize that a jail had to be built.

The old facility was often in violation of Iowa Department of Corrections standards. Staff and inmates had been subjected to hot conditions during the summer, for example. If the jail hadn't been built, the county might have had to pay other facilities for incarceration costs for years to come.

“We got 70 years out of our facility, which is good,” Wolfgram said of the jail built in 1939. That facility was originally built to house 10 people, but over the years space was added to accommodate more prisoners.

Last night, the facility was housing about 20 people.

Wolfgram said the new facility, built onto the south side of the courthouse, can house around 50 inmates and meets state standards.

At the old facility, contraband was sometimes passed from visitors to prisoners. At the new jail, however, inmates will see their visitors in a room equipped with video screens. The new jail also has three pods where prisoners will sleep and live.

Wolfgram said the new building's communications center and offices will allow his 12 deputies to be more productive and relieve a lot of legwork, such as moving inmates back and forth between jails.

Taking inmates to the courthouse also was made easier, Wolfgram said. Now deputies can walk people directly into a courtroom and not have to pass through a busy hallway.

Mary Kay Miller, who toured the jail Saturday and participated in a “bail for jail” fundraiser Friday got to sample a little bit of the jail life.

She wore a red and white jumpsuit and sampled the food.

“It's not bad,” she said.