The OFTEN-CROWDED Belmont County Jail likely will expand in the coming years. With the Belmont County courts and prosecutor’s office now consolidated in a single building, the jail is next on the county’s list of planned improvements.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Now that the Western, Eastern and Northern Division county courts and prosecutor’s office are being consolidated in the newly renovated justice center, Belmont County has another extensive and long-awaited criminal justice project to consider.

Sheriff David Lucas said the county is now able to turn its attention to potential new jail facilities to house the consistently crowded inmate population. Lucas said the jail was expanded in 2008 due to growth in the number of inmates, but the county did not foresee the capacity that would be needed.

“In five years of 2008, we outgrew the facility,” Lucas said. “We’re already in the planning stage of doing another expansion. We’re going to do it right this time. We’re not going to just build it for what we need it for, we’re going to build it so we can grow into.”

Lucas said he expects the new jail facilities will be connected to the current jail.

“We’re going to be adding to it, but everything’s got to be redesigned,” he said, noting the facility has 144 beds with an average daily population of 189 prior to the pandemic.

Crowding had become so serious that the commissioners often paid to house inmates in other county’s jails. Lucas said the situation is further complicated by issues such as the need to isolate sex offender suspects and provide for inmates with special needs or high security requirements.

And there are other considerations that will be taken into account.

“The kitchen was built for the size of an 84-bed facility originally,” Lucas said. “The kitchen wasn’t expanded.”

Lucas said more state funding could be available for jail construction, as well as federal coronavirus aid. He declined to speculate on what the cost might be.

“We’re doing it where we have a special needs wing, plenty of medical cells for males and females, high-risk cells,” he said. “It’s going to be done and done right.”

Lucas said 300 or more new beds could be added. He added that if capacity and circumstances allow, the county could also begin renting out beds to overcrowded jails.

Commissioner Jerry Echemann said he could not estimate a possible cost since the precise size of the potential facility is yet to be determined.

“The plans are still in the preliminary stages. We know we need to address the jail and expansion at some point. The question will come down to how many more beds are needed? And the need itself is great. Pre-COVID, the jail was packed and we were housing a lot of inmates (outside the county). Once COVID hit, the arrests were down, court cases were down and the body count out of the prison was down. … But we think now we’re coming out of that, and we think we’re going to come back to the same old thing. … That’s an expensive venture. …

“Anything we do, it looks like it will be on the existing site, but it’s still very preliminary,” he continued. “The state is coming forward with some money from prison for counties in the state budget bill.”

Echemann said it is doubtful the state would pay the entire cost of a new facility. He did not speculate on what federal coronavirus relief funds can be used for.

“We’ll see what we have and what the restrictions are,” he concluded.