An aerial view of the Grant County Criminal Justice Center concept art. A vehicle maintenance facility is off to the right. The administrative offices are the brown-gray building toward the front. The two white-roofed wings to the rear are the two jail buildings that will house prisoners.

Workers install a girder for the jail building furthest from State Route 17. The buildings will be one story with two layers of cells to house inmates and be physically separated into pods to ensure populations of inmates don’t mix for safety reasons.

The cinder block walls of the administrative portion of the new justice center are going up. The gray walls will have a brown facade that makes the building look like any other government office and won’t stand out as a place where people are incarcerated with the exception of some fencing.

Grant County Sheriff Joey Kriete explains to Columbia Basin Herald Managing Editor R. Hans “Rob” Miller how the inside of the jail buildings while crews continue the process of constructing the building closest to State Route 17.

Crews install a steel support for one of the two jail annexes at the new Grant County Criminal Justice Center. Completion of the facility is anticipated in 2026.

Crews continue working on the walls for the administration building at the new justice center in Ephrata.