SACRAMENTO – The State Fire Marshal today approved plans for the East County Detention Center, a major step that will allow Riverside County to put the project out to bid within a month.
The East County Detention Center will boost the local economy with hundreds of construction jobs and 450 permanent positions thereafter. It will feature 1,626 state-of-the-art beds, representing a net addition of 1,273 beds to the county's overall detention center bed capacity.
Over the last two and a half years, the county worked rapidly and diligently with the City of Indio and private industry to prepare for the East County Detention Center. County departments were relocated in order to demolish the County Administrative Center, a four-courtroom annex, and public safety radio communications building and tower that sat on the site. The demolition was completed in November 2014.
Along the way, the county designed and built new facilities to revitalize and streamline county operations in downtown Indio. This week, Supervisor Benoit celebrated the grand opening of the County Law Building, the new three-floor facility for the district attorney, public defender, county counsel and Indio branch of the law library.
Other projects completed in this series of improvements include: two courtrooms at the Larson Justice Center, the East County Emergency Operations Center and an 832-space parking structure.