BEMIDJI — As Beltrami County makes progress toward the construction of a new jail closer to Bemidji’s Industrial Park, county commissioners are learning their options for what to do with the current downtown jail.
Commissioners heard three potential options during a work session on Tuesday, April 1, while a $15,000 building condition assessment study is underway.
The downtown jail has a tunnel connecting to the Beltrami County Courthouse, which is used to transport incarcerated people to hearings. Since the COVID-19 pandemic brought the advent of Zoom court, more people attend their hearings remotely.
County Administrator Tom Barry described the options, including one that would remodel most of the building.
“We do have to have a way to get those inmates that are required or wish to be heard in court, in person, to and from the judicial center,” Barry said. “So that's the first option is how can we leave the facility, if we can, and improve it and repurpose it, and also deal with the sally port.”
The other options include a partial or full teardown, with the possibility of remodeling the judicial center to add a sally port, or an entrance used for secure inmate transfers.
The original structure was built in the early ‘90s, and while upgrades have taken place over the years, including a full kitchen remodel, Barry and others on county staff are concerned that the building is in too rough of shape for any future use.
“I think some of us, most of us probably, have a suspicion that we're probably not going to be able to reutilize a good portion of the jail,” Barry said. "So either the option 2 or the option 3 is probably going to be more likely.”
Commissioners took no formal action because expenses related to the jail are already budgeted.
Beltrami County voters overwhelmingly supported a local option sales tax in 2023 to fund the construction of a new jail. That tax went into effect last July. Construction on the $80 million facility is expected to begin this spring, with the new jail expected to be completed in 2027.
