Can't jump at jail bait
Consider this.
An outsider steps in and offers to build Kootenai County a jail. He'll own it; the county will lease it and staff it.
The arrangement will save the county and its taxpayers a couple million dollars a year, maybe more.
If the facility falls behind on technology, it's the owner's responsibility to update it. If wear and tear render the place vulnerable, it's the owner's responsibility to fix it. Yes, he and his investors stand to turn a tidy profit if everything on paper turns into reality. But one of the county's most agonizing headaches, managing an outdated and undersized jail, will be vanquished by a magic aspirin tablet that lasts the duration of the lease, maybe 20 years or more.
"If we could save money and lower costs with the way we're doing things, who wouldn't do that?" said County Commissioner Todd Tondee.
Who wouldn't, indeed?
Well, Kootenai County might not. Even though in the past half dozen years voters have twice defeated proposed tax increases to build a bigger and better jail, emphasizing to county officials that they're going to have to find a new solution for incarceration woes, handing the jail keys to a private entity isn't a slammer dunk.
Too frequently for comfort, headlines around the country address difficulties similar arrangements have created. And everybody started off on the same page: Keep bad guys close and closely guarded; keep jail staff safe; keep taxpayers solvent.
Investors haven't been forthcoming in some cases because the projected return on investment is too little or too late. In some locales, labor strife and legal wrangling have thwarted progress. And philosophically, even the suggestion of privatized prisons or jails has become a prime target for those who believe profit motive will skew the way justice is rendered.
Whether this company, headed by a former sheriff, and our county government, which clearly wants a solution, can find a way to proceed must still be determined, and that will take some time and some resources. Where has this model proven effective? Where has it broken down, and why? What's Kootenai County going to do if it doesn't proceed with the offer now on the table?
Because the decision to go ahead would likely circumvent a public vote, the county commissioners must get this right. Who knows? They might find that the private jail proposal isn't too good to be true, and what a relief that would be for everybody.