Having closed their 1920s-era jail in the early 1980s when Nebraska Jail Standards went into effect, Red Willow County began thirty years of transporting and housing all County inmates to out-of-county jails.  All of the associated costs were borne by their taxpayers.  In 2011, the County selected Prochaska & Associates to develop a comprehensive Feasibility Study to identify the best option for resolving their costly “board and transport” dilemma.  This study recommended that the County build a 36-bed Law Enforcement Center, which the County Commissioners chose to finance using the 5.2 cent levy (“nickel tax”) permitted by Nebraska Statute.  Construction of their new fully code-compliant Jail and Sheriff’s Office facility adjacent to the County’s historic Courthouse was completed in 2014, ending the decades-long drain of County taxpayer money to other counties.