OCONTO COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – One local county has a new space to house inmates.
Oconto County held a Thursday ribbon cutting ceremony for its new $32,000,000 jail.
Sheriff Mike Jansen says the new building includes “the sheriff’s offices, the new jail facility, and we brought emergency management and the emergency operations center over.”
Jansen notes the main reasons for the move are bolstering public safety and addressing overcrowding.
“In my current jail, I have 69 beds. We’ll move into this new facility with 148.”
Administrator Carol Kopp says professional visitors will have their own entrance, with access to the backside visitation booths.
She notes there will also be some changes for other guests.
“Family visits are going to be done via video. In our front lobby, we’ll have video stations and in each one of the 19 housing pod areas, there will be video visitation available.”
While the ribbon cutting cermony has been held, Administrative Coordinator Kevin Hamann says the inmate transfer likely won’t happen until mid-July.
“Over the next month, six weeks, we gotta get all the bugs out, make sure everything works, before the state will come in and give us the final okay to open doors to house prisoners.”
County officials say the old space in the county courthouse will now be used by the Oconto County Tech Services Department.
A public open house of the new jail is scheduled to run Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm.
