New Faulk County Jail successful

Faulk County Sheriff Kurt Hall recently stated that Faulk County has contracted with more than 13 counties in the state to use the new jail, including Brown, Brookings, Beadle and Minnehaha (these counties have their own jails, but are contracted with Faulk County so they may trade a particular or high profile inmate back and forth as needed); Butte, Dewey, Campbell, McPherson, Edmunds, Hyde, Hand, Spink, with Sully, Walworth and Potter in the works. At the end of October, 2017 the office moved into the new jail followed with training for several weeks in November. The new jail took in their first inmate on Nov. 13, 2017. The inmate was from Hand County and on work release.

“Having this one inmate at that time was good training for our office, before more inmates arrived,” Sheriff Hall noted.

The jail is now almost full (35 bed capacity) with 22 prisoners as of this writing. Sheriff Hall said that each county pays $85 per prisoner per night.

The success of the new jail has been good for Faulkton and Faulk County providing several new jobs for jailers, and providing increased revenue to Faulkton Drug, FaulktonAreaMedical Center, and Area IV Senior Nutrition program (provided by the Senior Center) with 8,560 meals served in 2018. The Autumn Leaves Senior Center (where the meals are prepared) is only a short 1/2 block to the new jail.

Area IV has also added a couple of part-time personnel to help cook the meals. They provide a hot breakfast and lunch, and also provide a sack lunch for suppertime.

The $5.6 million new jail was approved by Faulk County voters in December of 2015 by an overwhelming vote of 557 in favor to 169 opposed, with a 49% turnout.

The 2018 year end total for incounty inmates was 20, serving a total of 85 days. Year end totals for out-of-county inmates was 380 different inmates who served 3,067 days.

“The year started out a little slow the beginning of 2018 due to the rumor that the new jail was not fully staffed, truth was the jail was always staffed according to inmate population. As the population grew, so did the staff,” Sheriff Hall commented.

In the last six months the inmate population has grown due to South Dakota counties contracting with the Faulk County Sheriff.

Article and photo courtesy of the Faulk County Record.