County should sign off on jail funds

The reaction to our posting of last week’s front page story regarding Pennington County asking Custer County for help in expanding its jail was swift, as it always is on social media. Admittedly, many people recognized the deal being pitched to Custer County is a good one, but there were some who were against the proposal, citing rising property taxes. If you are afraid that giving Pennington County money to help add on to its jail is going to cost a pretty penny, you really wouldn’t want to know what it would cost the county to operate its own jail.
There may be people who don’t know, but Custer County does take its incarcerated people, whether accused of a crime and awaiting trial, or convicted of a crime and sentenced to jail or awaiting transport to prison, to the Pennington County Jail. Why? Because there is little alternative. Custer County does not have a jail, and it has a contract to house its prisoners in Rapid City. The county has holding cells, but those are only a temporary measure until the person can be transported to a suitable jail. The transport is usually done by volunteer sheriff’s office reserves, so it costs the county minimal money. That is especially true if the court proceedings are done via teleconference instead of shuttling prisoners back and forth to Custer, which is done more and more.
The fact of the matter is Custer County having to build its own jail would cost an astronomical amount—much, much more than $200,000 a year. Think about all of the expenses that it would take to construct and operate a jail. There is the cost of the land, there is cost of construction. There is the cost of hiring administration. There is the cost of hiring guards of both genders. There is the cost of having a laundry facility. There is the cost of having a food facility. There is the cost of having a nurse, dentist, etc., on staff. Pennington County already has all of these services on site and is an accredited facility.
You get the idea. The cost would be millions upon millions of dollars annually. We are all English majors here, but we do known millions and millions is a lot more than $200,000. For that reason, the proposal being put forward by the Pennington County Commission/Sheriff’s Office seems like a no-brainer to us. We could always refuse, and Pennington County could refuse to take our prisoners. The cost to Custer County is $105 a day for a prisoner, and $125 each day if the person is considered special management for behavior, medical or mental reasons. This is a cost that will remain in addition to the $200,000 annually.
For comparison’s sake, Fall River County budgets nearly $1 million a year to operate its jail (which Custer County does not have a contract with) and is currently studying whether to build a new jail to replace its deteriorating facility or also contract with Pennington County. That county, too, realizes the cost of building a new jail.
Yes, the $200,000 requested is a lot of money, but in the long run, it’s the only viable option, we feel. It is Custer County’s job to take care of people it arrests and sends to jail, and joining forces with Pennington County on this project seems to us as the most sensible way to do so.