Members of the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office and the Sumter County Board of County Commissioners gathered this past week to officially cut the ribbon on the Jail Expansion Project.

Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Chief Dep. Chris Haworth prepares to cut the ribbon for the $19.98 million expansion project at the Detention Center. Haworth was joined by, from left, Sumter County Commissioner Gary Search, Sumter County Sheriff Bill Farmer and Sumter County Commissioner Craig Estep.
Sumter County Sheriff Bill Farmer gets ready for the ribbon-cutting event on a new pod at the Sumter County Detention Center.

The event took place Tuesday at the Sumter County Detention Center in Bushnell. The Design/Build Team for the $19.98 million project was led by Ajax and CRA Architects and consisted of a one-story, two-level tilt panel housing pod building with a total gross square footage of 38,662.

The new pod will have an inmate capacity of 256, with modular cells included on all four sides of the building at two levels. There is a control room in the middle for observation and controlling the inmate population, and an enclosed fenced walkway extends from the existing building to connect to the new housing pod.

Sheriff Bill Farmer and Chief Deputy Chris Haworth were joined by Sumter County Commissioners Craig Estep and Gary Search at the event.