Placing our most vulnerable in a setting such as this will reduce the trauma of being in custody, prevent escalation of crisis and provide a safer outcome for all, including our own staff.”

Dakota County Sheriff Joe Leko

The $14.4 million project was funded via the American Rescue Plan Act, a 2021 $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package signed by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021.

Dakota County Jail
1580 Hwy 55
Hastings, MN 55033
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Dakota County unveiled the new 26-bed Integrative Health Unit for the Dakota County Jail on Monday, March 10. The addition to the jail is designed to be the “intensive care unit,” in the jail for inmates requiring more care for cases including detox, suicide watch, behavioral issues, or self-harm, said Dakota County Sheriff Joe Leko.
“Take a moment to look around here today, and you don’t need a design expert to recognize this is no jail,” said Chair of the Board of Commissioners Mike Slavik.
The unit features large windows, skylights, murals, planters, wood-like finishes and carpet, all meant to provide a warmer, calmer environment for those experiencing a health emergency or mental health crisis.
Wold Architects and Engineers designed the unit with a “biophilic design,” featuring murals of natural landscapes as well as planted green spaces that better supports inmates’ mental health, according to Wold’s website. In addition, inmates will be able to spend most of their time outside of their cells in communal areas.
“Placing our most vulnerable in a setting such as this will reduce the trauma of being in custody, prevent escalation of crisis and provide a safer outcome for all, including our own staff,” said Leko.
From the size and weight of chairs and tables to the drains beneath doors to stop inmates from being able to flood their cells, the space is meant to keep inmates safe. “Every inch of this unit was intentional,” said Leko.
While the unit is not expected to open until April, the jail currently has 12-15 inmates who would move there were it to open today. Inmates are expected to spend 7-10 days in the integrative health unit but could stay for potentially much longer depending on their circumstances. Roughly a quarter of inmates at Dakota County Jail have serious health conditions that require special care. The jail has 289 beds with the new addition.
Sheriff Leko has consistently characterized the unit as the intensive care unit of the jail, gathering those that require extra care into one wing rather than having healthcare workers “running around the entire jail,” said Leko in a July interview.
The $14.4 million project was funded via the American Rescue Plan Act, a 2021 $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package signed by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021. The addition comes with 12 new deputies for the jail. These deputies will not be healthcare workers. Dakota County Jail contracts for healthcare with Advanced Correctional Healthcare, the largest jail contract management company in the United States.
The operating costs of the wing are expected to total “almost a percent of our levy in every annual operations here,” Slavik, continuing, “That cost will come back tenfold.”
While officials maintain that the opening of the new unit is a continuance of the healthcare practices provided by the Dakota County Jail, the ribbon cutting occurred as Dakota County and Advanced Correctional Healthcare are among those being sued for healthcare previously provided in the Dakota County Jail.
The case, Duffy v. Brown et al, concerns the treatment of Caleb Duffy who “experienced deplorable conditions inside a padded cell at the Dakota County Jail when the obvious and severe symptoms he displayed of a medical emergency were repeatedly ignored,” according to the July 18, 2024 filing.
After a stay in the Dakota County Jail the night of July 5-6, 2021, “Duffy was naked and covered in feces, urine, vomit, and blood when Jail nurses finally checked on his condition, recorded a blood sugar level so high they could not measure it, and decided to send him to the ER,” according to the filing. At the emergency room, Duffy was diagnosed with diabetic ketoacidosis with coma.
The case seeks money damages for the injuries Duffy suffered within the Dakota County Jail “as the direct and proximate result of the Defendants’ deliberate indifference to Duffy’s serious medical needs and their negligence.”