Jail: Seek a better solution

Kootenai County residents want to know about and be heard on major issues regarding county government; particularly when the issues affect their safety and their pocket books. The overcrowded county jail and what to do about it is precisely one of those issues.

By a vote of two to one, the Board of County Commissioners has taken a first step toward addressing the problem that has plagued the county for more than 20 years. Unfortunately they got it wrong. Commissioner Nelson's no vote was the right one for the right reasons. The plan to lease a privately owned jail is an end run around voters and the opinion they have expressed by majority votes at least twice in the past.

Make no mistake. The jail is overcrowded and difficult to manage efficiently. According to the sheriff, $900,000 annually is spent to house prisoners in out-of-county jails. Perhaps more important is the time spent in transports that could be used to put more officers on the road in Kootenai County. Add to that the fact that the prisoner population has changed from predominantly misdemeanor to predominantly felony offenders and the imperative is evident.

Clearly action is needed but what action and taken by whom is the question. The BOCC seems to have taken the view that the voters have refused to do what needs to be done so they must take a course of action that circumvents the need for voter approval.

All elected officials are involved in this issue to some degree and they must make the case for an acceptable solution. At the same time voters must recognize that this is ultimately their problem and they must come up with the solution. If they do not then someone else will. It will be either the sheriff, through the limited options available to him, the BOCC, through some action such as they have taken or the court through prisoners' legal action which becomes more likely as the overcrowding worsens.

Simply going to the polls and voting down the funding of a new jail is really a head-in-the-sand approach. Time will only make the problem worse. At the same time, the community does not have to accept the choice of either lease or build and own a 624-bed jail. Other options involving a mix of incarceration and enhancement of community based options such as Drug and Mental Health Courts, expanded probation services, community custody work release facilities and other programs which will both reduce the jail population and curb future growth mean less construction and operating costs. Before considering the options look at the dollar cost to taxpayers.

Set aside for the moment the question of does the county need a 624-bed jail. The cost of leasing the facility under the proposal put forward by the sheriff and the BOCC is approximately $5.4 million per year. Over a 30-year lifespan the county would spend $120 million. (Disregard for now inflationary lease increases and other costs such as maintenance that might accrue to the county.) For the county to build that same jail, the cost would most likely fall in the range of $35,000 to $50,000 per bed or in the range of $22.4 million to $31.2 million for the same facility. Financing, design and land acquisition costs will double that amount over the term of the necessary bonding.

Obviously, either by action or inaction, voters are taking on a huge obligation. The question is will they take the active route and consider all the options to reduce crime, divert offenders into less costly programs and reduce the number of needed jail beds or will they take the path of denial and miss the opportunity to shape the county justice system for the next 20 or more years?

To be sure leasing a private jail is a long-term commitment, notwithstanding a "judicial determination" that the lease only commits the county one year at a time. Once the deal is struck and prisoners are moved into a new jail, there is no practical way to ever go back to the current jail. The only viable option in the future will be to face the problem then as we should now.

It is prudent to plan for a rising prison population. We live in a rapidly growing county and in a growing region. Building some extra beds, perhaps 10 percent, over the immediate need is reasonable. Beyond that it makes more sense to design for future expansion rather than build now. Too many extra beds means one or a combination of three things: Expensive jail beds go unused, the justice system develops an "it's available so use it" mentality driving up operating costs, or the county goes into the rent-a-bed business. None of these three is good for the community.

Finally, the community needs to learn about and evaluate the wide variety of community based programs that can reduce overall prisoner counts and maintain community safety at the same time. Some of these programs are already in use in the county but there are additional options available and the existing programs may have room for improvement and expansion. It is a waste of time to try to stop the parade but we can still determine the parade route.

Jerry Shriner is a Coeur d'Alene resident.