Stearns County Sheriff Moves Inmates As Old Jail Hits Capacity

The Stearns County Jail is full as the new Justice Center and jail is being constructed on the west side of St. Cloud.  Stearns County Sheriff Steve Soyka joined me on WJON.  He says they currently have 150 beds and that number will almost double in the new facility.

Jail at Capacity

Soyka says the Stearns County Jail is completely full and they've had to house some people in different county jails in neighboring counties.  He says due to classifications of inmates, they need to house some individuals in different locations because the current Stearns County jail wasn't designed for those people.   Sheriff Soyka says they are currently housing inmates in Wright, Benton and Morrison counties.  He says they had an incident in their female housing unit because some inmates didn't get along so they moved one to Wright County for that purpose.

Photo - Jay Caldwell

New Justice Center

The new Stearns County Jail is expected to be completed by the spring of 2029 but Soyka says there is a possibility that it could be done by the fall of 2028.  He says the footings for the jail and Sheriff's office have been poured and he expects the build up of the structure to be noticeable from County Road 75 within the next 2 months.

Working With City Police Departments

The Stearns County Sheriff's Department partners with 13 local police departments in the county.  He says there are a lot more communities in the county they are responsible for.  Soyka says some examples of communities without a police department that they are the primary law enforcement for include Holdingford, St. Stephen and Rockville.  He says they have 3 shifts for officers which include, the day shift, evening shift and midnight shift.   Soyka says they have anywhere from 4-8 deputies on any given shift.  He explains that due to injuries or vacations, they could be down to as small as 3 deputies on a shift.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Sheriff Soyka, click below.