The expansion includes 144 inmate beds and was funded through the Public Safety and Offender Rehabilitation Services Act of 2007.
That was long before prison realignment, which now has counties housing inmates that would have formerly gone to prison. "With that, our population is being impacted, our population of highly sophisticated inmates is now going up and the important thing now is to find programming for those inmates," said Lt. Jerry King with the Madera County Department of Corrections.
The expansion brings the jail capacity to just over 560 inmates. In addition to the new beds, there's also a new administration building with a video visitation area. Those video monitors will allow inmates to visit their loved ones without leaving their housing units.
