With demand for cells shrinking, Scott and Carver counties are considering merging a pair of jails, both built within the past 20 years.
Carver's jail went up in 1994, Scott's in 2005. But the average number of inmates in both institutions could fit within Scott's with room to spare.
Both sides stress that the talks are preliminary, with no decision expected for many months. But they add that with total costs of more than $7 million, the savings could be substantial.
"When you look at their capacities and the number of inmates," said Carver County Administrator Dave Hemze, "there's a gap there. That is the biggest driver as to why we would even consider the move. With that many vacant beds, does it make sense?"
Options include assigning different categories of inmates to each jail, or mothballing one of them for the time being, officials said.
The two counties are not unusual in having planned and built costly jails at a time when crime was rising, and, in the case of suburbs and exurbs, growth expectations were greater than they are today.
Today, "crime is down big," said Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson. "I wish I could say it was law enforcement, but it's a national trend. We're aging, with fewer young adults in the 15- to 24-year-old age range who are more apt to do crime."
Over the past four years, the combined average daily inmate count between the two jails has shrunk from 222 to 186, a drop of 16 percent.