Allen Parish Sheriff Doug Hebert III says the State Fire Marshal's Office has approved the plans for the new 180-bed, $8.5 million jail, with a few minor changes that need to be made.
Hebert says bid packages for the project could be available to interested contractors by mid-August, with construction underway by the end of the year.
Parish officials have been working on plans for a new jail since 2002 when the current jail was deemed overcrowded and inadequate.
Plans for the facility call for a two-story, 40,000-square-foot building - 32,000 square feet of which will be used as jail space on the bottom floor. A 9,000-square-foot administrative facility will be on the top level, allowing most of the Sheriff's Office to be consolidated under one roof.
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