Open house set for Saturday at BC jail’s new expansion

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An open house at the new expansion of the Baxter County Detention Center is set for Saturday from noon until 4. Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery says the open house will be for the new expansion only. The public will not be allowed into the existing detention center.Detention center staff will be on hand to answer questions. Samples of “jail food” consisting of beans and cornbread will also be offered.

Sheriff Montgomery says the official opening and occupancy of the new addition is expected in the next couple of weeks, with the completion of final inspections.




Once the expansion is open, work will begin in parts of the existing detention center to correct plumbing and other issues. The repair work in the existing detention center is expected to take approximately two months. During this time, some of the inmates will be moved back and forth between the two sections of the jail.




The current jail capacity is 100 beds. When all work on both the new and the old detention center is completed, the capacity will reach 165 beds.

A new lobby on the front entrance of the jail was opened last week, with inmate visitation resuming Monday. Montgomery says the new lobby makes it much more convenient for the public interacting with the jail or with deputies after normal business hours.




The jail expansion project was made possible by Baxter County voters passing a temporary one-cent sales tax collected for six months in 2018. Montgomery says the project is still on schedule and on budget.

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