Open Big House

With the assistance of county officials, Lawrence County Sheriff Brad DeLay cuts the ceremonial ribbon in front of the newly constructed Lawrence County Law Enforcement Center the morning of Thursday, July 18. Around 100 people attended the ceremony for the new jail, which rings in at more than 37,000 square feet and 120 beds.

After speechifying by Lawrence County Presiding Commissioner Bob Senninger and construction management members, the crowd—shown funneling in—was given tours of the monster facility.

A commons area accessible from two floors is shown with tables for prisoners.

Shown is the booking room which includes several cells and a padded room for prisoners who may be a danger to themselves or others.

Pictured, a standard cell which comes with its own shower and two beds. (Photos by Ryan Squibb)
Public gets chance to view new $23 million jail
The citizens of Lawrence County had the opportunity to view the new Lawrence County Law Enforcement Center on Thursday, July 18, following a ribbon cutting celebrating the new facility. Members of the public were invited to explore the building following the ceremony.
New jail will be safer, more cost efficient than current jail
The building was built at a cost of $23 million, but Brad DeLay, Lawrence County Sheriff, said the investment was necessary because of problems with the current jail. He also said the new jail would allow the county to keep more inmates in Lawrence County, potentially saving the county up to $400,000 per year.
“(Our current) jail just had so many issues,” he said, “… that it was just costing more and more money to dump into (it), and it was costing the taxpayers lots of money. And then on top of that, probably the more important concern was just the safety of the old jail. So, because of that, we’ve been working on this for the past several years trying to get a better facility, and we’re finally to that point. Our two main goals really in this whole process was, number one, to make it safe for everybody, (including) the inmates … and the staff at work there. And then, number two, … we were sending inmates out to other counties throughout the state, and at the cost of in some years of nearly $500,000 a year. And that’s money that should not have been sent to other places; money that we could have been using in our own county.”
While the public was able to tour the new law enforcement center, DeLay said that there was still a considerable amount of work to be completed, so the new facility won’t be in operation until October or November.
“We are we are still little ways from completion,” he said. “There’s all the little stuff (to be completed). The biggest part (of the construction) is done, but there’s a lot of what we call … punch ticket items in there that still need to be fixed. There’s still some training of the jail staff and other staff to be done. There’s still the outfitting of the jail for little things like furniture (and) desk type things. So, we are hoping within the next three to four months to be completely operational.”
Members of the public pleased with new jail
Chris Prater, who came to tour the new law enforcement center, said he believed that the building would not only be an asset to Lawrence County, but to surrounding counties also.
“We were spending a lot of money outsourcing our inmates with other counties,” he said. “Now we’re going to be able to source them here and have them at our facility and even be able to help (other counties) like Barry County because … their jail has been condemned and is not able to hold inmates. So, we’ll be able to help them out too, and hopefully (that will) help pay for some of this.”
Brittni Bates, executive director of the Mt. Vernon Area Chamber of Commerce, said that she was glad to see the new law enforcement center coming to completion.
“I’m glad that people can come to a beautiful facility where they can have pride in where they work,” she said. “And thank you to those who serve our community and serve in law enforcement and thank you to the leadership who were able to make this project a huge success.”
Old jail’s future remains undecided
It was not immediately clear what would become of the old jail located near the Lawrence County Justice Center just off the square in Mt. Vernon. DeLay said that the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office would continue to utilize some of the space to transport inmates and hold them for court.
Tim Selvey, Eastern Lawrence County commissioner, said the future of the old jail and office space had been discussed by the commission but no decisions had been made as of yet. He said one possibility was to make the old jail a storage space for county.
“We have discussed it,” he said. “We’re not at a position right now to give you a firm answer on what that is. We’re weighing options and, as with every county, the storage of documents is very important and it’s something we take very seriously. The old facility is designed for security, so that’s something that we’ve thought about.”
The new law enforcement center will house both the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office and a 120-bed jail. It can also be expanded to house two new 96-bed jail pods should the need arise. The facility is built on part of an eight-acre plot of land sold to the county by the City of Mt. Vernon for $1 in October of 2020.
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Lawrence County Record
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Mt. Vernon, MO, 65712
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