Adams County's new justice center to open soon, replacing aging, crowded jail

HASTINGS, Neb. — After spending millions to have someone else lock up their prisoners, Adams County gets the keys to its new jail.

Locking up prisoners and locking down costs has been the goal

“We want to spend money that will benefit the most people we can,” said Lee Hogan, chair of the county commissioners.

Voters approved $38 million. That was before covid caused supply chain issues. Hogan says they reconfigured plans to keep costs down for a project driven by a desire to find a solution for a long running problem that cost millions.

“The money we were spending in other counties was getting out of hand,” he said.

OFFICIALS EXPLAIN HOW THE NEW JAIL WILL BENEFIT ADAMS COUNTY

With only 37 beds, it had become routine to send prisoners elsewhere.

“We had people in six or seven counties all the time,” Hogan said.

The county pays a daily rate plus it stretches manpower to transport prisoners.

“Comes court day we send two deputies to Grand Island to pick them up, bring them to court, when court's done we bring them back, lots of travel time also. We'll eliminate that,” Hogan said.

Now they'll have 157 beds ranging from highly secure to more casual bunks for those on work release.

And neighboring counties with small jails will bring their inmates here.

“We're going to turn around and it's going to be full. More and more people are looking for room for their inmates and we can help some,” Hogan said.

Hogan says the process began in 2017 as farmers, nurses, and business people got on board then voters passed the bond in 2020 to replace the 1962 jail.

Hogan says the new Adams County Justice center, as its known, will be safer for staff and inmates.

Construction was delayed but Hogan says should be a couple of million under budget.

“Great construction people to work with hard for me to come up with anything to complain about,” he said.

The building on the south side of Hastings still needs a few finishing touches and staff needs to train and then it will come time to move in.