The Associated Press
TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) -- A growing population, the influx of methamphetamine and increased efforts by law enforcement to target some types of crimes has the Twin Falls County Jail overflowing.
County officials are looking for ways to solve the overcrowding. But in the meantime, some of the county’s inmates are serving time at neighboring jails -- at a cost of $455,000 last year.
“On Nov. 19, we had 27 inmates in other jails,” Twin Falls County Commissioner Gary Grindstaff said. “That’s $1,215 a day, and we’ve been about that way all week. It adds up pretty fast.”
Commissioners began considering a new jail a few years ago, but the county abandoned plans to enter a $30 million, 30-year lease with three companies for the project. In May 2002, voters rejected a $16 million bond meant to pay for the new facility.
Now the county is turning to a needs assessment study for hints on how to ease overcrowding at the 220-bed jail.
“We’re looking at where (the county) has been, where they’re going and the type of inmates, booking and trends they have,” said Russ Morehead, a partner with Lombard-Conrad Architects, one of the companies working on the study. “We just don’t know until we get into the numbers what kind of infrastructure is needed.”
The study will look at any sentencing trends, such as the number of people serving time for specific offenses.
“I suspect we might be holding more less-violent people in jail (than other places),” Grindstaff said, “or we’re not doing a good job getting them through the system. The government works too slowly.”
Additionally, Grindstaff said, the county is below the state average for the number of people sentenced to work-release programs.
“We’re running 12 percent of our population out of work-release. I’d like that to go up,” he said.
Commissioners are also considering a pretrial release program, already implemented in some Idaho counties. The program would allow certain inmates who can’t make bail to be released on house arrest or strict supervision.
“Pretrial release definitely needs to be discussed because a lot of people get stuck in jail longer than they should,” Grindstaff said.