By C1 Staff
LIVINGSTON COUNTY, Mich. – A new expansion for the Livingston County Jail will make the facility look less correctional and more like a “civic center,” according to prison officials.
The Livingston Daily reports that improvements like services for education, drug treatment and individual showers are all part of the expansion.
It will also allow jail staff to limit inmate movement, reducing inmate-on-inmate assaults and inmate-on-staff assaults.
Architect Mike Kennedy of the Lindhout Associates Architects said it was important to create an image of a civic center or auditorium for the exterior, since the jail is situated in a prominent location near schools and residential areas.
The primary benefit, officials emphasize, will be addressing chronic overcrowding. The expanded jail will have 157 new beds, 80 of them for women, increasing the bed count from 254 to 411.
Sheriff Bob Bezotte gave a special thanks to “all of our employees who have been working under these conditions.”
The county plans to use $14.2 million in bonds and $2.5 million in reserve funds to pay for the expansion, which is expected to be completed in June 2015.