OKEECHOBEE – Okeechobee County Commissioners had an opportunity to check out a sample jail cell on Thursday. 

County Attorney Wade Vose checks out the sample jail cell shown at the county meeting on Aug. 26.

The cells are a tight fit for two people.

Joe Mrak of Securitecture explained the jail project calls for the use of steel cells that are manufactured at the factory in South Dakota and transported to the site for placement.

The cells come complete with bunks, a small table, stool, sink, commode and shower already built in. The two-man cells have about 75 square feet of floor space. Four-man cells have about double that.

The exterior of the building is put up first. The cells can be stacked on top of each other and welded together then rolled into place. The control room will be built after the cells are in place.  

The prefabricated cells will help save money on the project, he explained, because this reduces construction time. The cells are also less vulnerable to damage than the concrete blocks used for the current jail. “These will come in on semi trucks. All of the cells can be set in a matter of a couple of weeks,” he said.

“In your design, your jail, each pod has 64 cells in it. Approximately 24 of them are two-person cells. The rest are four-person cells,” he continued.

He said the same cells can be used for male or female prisoners.