He has begun the process of planning for the construction of a new facility.

The current Pocahontas County Jail is located on the top floor of the 95-year-old Pocahontas County Courthouse.

Larsen said the jail is as old as the courthouse, which was built in 1923, and is not able to properly handle the needs of modern-day inmates.

“It’s old,” Larsen said. “It’s really a safety issue, not only for the inmates, but for my staff. It just really doesn’t work for us anymore.”

The biggest concern the sheriff has about the jail is getting unruly inmates under control.

“If we have somebody giving us a bad time, somebody that isn’t compliant at all — which we see a lot more of recently — there’s nothing I can do about it,” he said. “I can’t separate them from the other inmates.”

For example, Larsen said the jail has a solitary cell, but the cell doors can be seen through, which negates the concept of separating an inmate who needs to be alone.

There’s also no protection for jail staff, since all the cell doors have openings in them.

“If a jailer walks by, an inmate can throw whatever on that jailer,” Larsen said. “It’s happened in the past and it’ll continue to happen.”

Last month, Larsen approached the Pocahontas County Board of Supervisors and asked about getting started on building a new jail. A committee has been formed that is comprised of Larsen, the county auditor and two supervisors. They have begun the process of getting the new jail built.

“What I’m doing right now is taking bids for a needs assessment,” Larsen said. “The architect comes in, looks at what you have, looks at numbers, and gives a recommendation on bed size, things like that.”

The new jail would need to comply with modern jail standards.

Larsen said the current jail has been grandfathered in, enabling it to operate despite needing updates.

The new jail will be constructed on county-owned property southeast of the courthouse.

That was supposed to be the location of a new jail when county officials tried building one about 20 years ago.

Larsen said those plans never materialized.

As for when he expects the new jail to be built and completed, Larsen said there’s no set timeline in place.

“I want to do it right,” he said. “I want to take my time and I want the best value for the county, but it needs to be something that’ll work for us, too.”