New Wood County Sheriff’s Office and Jail near completion 2 years after breaking ground

Wednesday at 11:07 AM

WISCONSIN RAPIDS − Just over two years after crews broke ground on the new Wood County Sheriff’s Office and Jail, the locks are on the cell doors, elevators are operational, furniture is being placed and computer wires are being connected as the end of construction nears.

The transition team has begun to train in the new building, Wood County Jail Administrator Lt. Ted Ashbeck said.

Ashbeck and Wood County Sheriff Shawn Becker anticipate starting the move into the new building sometime in February, after the staff is fully trained on the procedures in the new facility.

Once the Wood County Sheriff’s Office and Jail are completely moved out of the old building, work on razing the old jail can begin sometime in 2025. Becker said he didn’t know exactly when that would happen.

People who would like to get a look inside the new facility firsthand are invited to attend an open house on Dec. 17 immediately following the Wood County Board meeting, which begins at 9:30 a.m., Becker said.

Jail construction is under budget and ahead of schedule

Laura Valenstein, chairwoman of the Wood County Jail Construction Adhoc Committee, said construction has gone extremely well. The construction is under budget and ahead of schedule, she said. Samuels Group of Wausau, the construction company building the jail, has been easy to work with, Valenstein said.

“They’ve done a great job,” she said. “They’ve been extremely receptive to feedback and a few things we wanted to change along the way.”

Becker, Ashbeck, Facilities Manager Reuben Van Tassel and sheriff’s office staff have done a good job staying on top of things with the jail project, Valenstein said. It was Valenstein’s first time being the chairwoman of such a large project and they made it easy, she said.

“I get to watch from the outside while the team deals with the nitty gritty,” Valenstein said.

Becker said he’s enjoyed working with Valenstein and Van Tassel during the project, which broke ground in October 2022. The Samuels Group has been good about making needed changes as they’ve been brought to their attention and keeping the project within its $98 million budget.

Wood County Sheriff Shawn Becker leads a tour through the new Wood County Jail on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, as it nears completion in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.

New facility increases safety and opportunities

The new jail will have many new features that improve safety for both inmates and staff as well as increased opportunities for training and inmate programming.

The new jail has video conference rooms placed throughout the facility. Currently, corrections officers bring inmates to the one conference room in the jail. The inmates wait outside the room for their turns to make court appearances. It’s a system that doesn’t work well, Becker said. The multiple video conference rooms will limit how far inmates have to be moved for their court appearances. There also is one conference room that will allow a defendant’s attorney to be in the jail with the inmate, instead of in the courtroom.

Some of the changes in the new jail Becker likes best are those that will allow for increased programming to help inmates. The current jail’s one small conference room also serves as the library. Having multiple conference rooms in the new jail will also allow for more meetings and training, Becker said.

The experience with COVID-19 had the jail’s designers and staff thinking about what elements the new jail needed to protect inmates’ health. There are cells designated for inmates who are sick. The area includes an exam room for nurses to see inmates with medical problems. The staff will be able to segregate sick inmates from the general jail population, Becker said.

The jail also has a padded cell for inmates who are experiencing mental health issues, Becker said. The cell is designed to keep an inmate who is violent from hurting themselves.

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Wood County Sheriff Shawn Becker leads a tour through the new Wood County Jail on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, as it nears completion in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.

The new jail kitchen also is designed to allow inmates to train on working in professional kitchens, Becker said. He hopes to work with Mid-State Technical College to create a program interested inmates can go through to become trained for restaurant work.

“Mid-State has been a very good partner for a lot of our jail programs,” Becker said.

The new facilities also give Wood County Sheriff’s Office staff more evidence room, better work spaces to write reports and meet, more locker room space and a new workout room.

Contact Karen Madden at 715-345-2245 or *****@*****.tld. Follow her on Twitter @KMadden715, Instagram @kmadden715 or Facebook at www.facebook.com/karen.madden.33.

This article originally appeared on Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: New Wood County Jail will be finished soon

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