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La Crosse County currently uses two separate buildings for housing inmates.  Female inmates are housed in the "old jail," designed for both male and female inmates in the mid 1960's, on the second floor of the current Administrative Center.  This linear jail was originally created with 60 beds plus 10 receiving cells.  As the jail population grew, an area of the first floor in the Administrative Center was remodeled as a 64 bed male Huber facility.  Again the population grew and in the early 1990's, the former Montgomery Wards Service Center across the street from the jail, was remodeled "temporarily" as a 110-bed male Huber facility.  The old first floor Huber area became a "Medium Security" area for male inmates in the still overcrowded second floor jail.

As the jail population continued to increase, a decision was made to build a new Law Enforcement building which would provide housing for inmates along with the offices and space for the Sheriff's Department, 911 Dispatch, Court System and District Attorney.  The original plan included a jail facility in excess of 400 beds.  The final building provided 172 beds in the 8-pod (17 to 30 beds per pod) housing unit on the second floor of the Law Enforcement Center and 23 receiving cells with a 7-bed medical area (including 2 padded cells) on the lower level.

Our new jail in the Law Enforcement Center opened in September 1997.  Due to lack of space and the need for inmates to be housed based on objective classification, the female population remained in the "old jail," which was in need of significant renovation.  The County Board authorized necessary repairs to be made to comply with state mandates and passed a resolution to limit the number of females to be held in the facility at a maximum of 39.  The "Medium Security" area in the Administrative Center was closed and the "temporary" Male Huber Facility remained operational.  The opening of the new jail gave us a total of 321 available beds.  On January 1, 2006 the Male Huber Facility was closed; the bed capacity was reduced to 211.

In November of 2008, ground was broken for a 29.5 million dollar addition to the Law Enforcement Center.  Jail expansion plans include a new kitchen, jail garage, booking, master control, two 57-bed direct supervision blocks, increased program space and remodeling of three existing pods along with the medical and receiving holding cell area of the exiting jail.