Study rekindles jail debate

COEUR d'ALENE — The debate over whether the Kootenai County jail should be expanded and how the local justice system can be improved has rekindled.

And this time, all of the players are at the table.

Representatives of the National Institute of Corrections reaffirmed on Wednesday that the local jail is overcrowded and recommended that the community come together to discuss a myriad of justice-related topics before determining how large a possible facility expansion should be.

The federal agency delivered its assessment of the jail and the judicial system to stakeholders at the county courthouse.

The jail's capacity is 327 beds, but the inmate population has reached nearly 400 in recent days. That statistic, coupled with the jail's inmate population hovering at 75 percent being felons, widened the eyes of the institute's Mark Martin.

"When you look at safety and liability, those are telling numbers to people like me," Martin said.

The jail is equipped to house 69 high-risk inmates, but there were 118 of those at the facility on Tuesday.

Corrections representatives spent two days touring the jail and interviewing stakeholders before presenting their initial findings during the meeting. A written report of the assessment will be delivered to Sheriff Ben Wolfinger in two weeks.

Wolfinger last spring asked the institute, which is part of the Bureau of Justice, to perform the assessment. The assessment was done at no cost to the county.

"I did this so the Board of County Commissioners and all of the other stakeholders will have an independent study by the nationally recognized expert on jail and justice systems," Wolfinger said. "We just want to know if we can do things better. If we don't utilize the resources that are available to us, we're missing the boat."

The institute's Karen Albert said her agency's review of the jail revealed that it's well-maintained, but is in need of more beds, more storage and improvements to watch inmates.

"It's not conducive to active inmate supervision," she said.

Albert said at many new jails, the recreation areas are next to the cells, limiting staff time needed to supervise inmates making the transition, but that isn't the case at the local jail.

Martin said a needs assessment that would provide a more in-depth analysis is needed to answer questions such as the risk profile of inmates in the jail, the type of offenders that the community wants to remain in jail, how well alternative programs are working and if more are needed, etc.

"What are the outcomes that you want as a community?" Martin said. "Do you want to make sure people are held accountable? You need to know where you want to be before you design a system that will get you there."

Wolfinger said talk of another jail expansion has been bantered for several years and it's evident that more beds are needed, but what makes the discussion different this time is that all sides of the justice system are at the table. Those in attendance at the meeting included judges, members of the prosecutor's and public defender's offices, probation personnel, law enforcement and a few concerned community members.

"That part is groundbreaking for Kootenai County," Wolfinger said of the stakeholders. "It's not just a jail problem, but a community problem."

The more members of the justice community who are at the table, the more efficient the jail will be operated, Wolfinger said.

One idea that has sprouted is re-instating a pre-trial release program where individuals determined to be likely to appear in court, and not reoffend pending trial, are released by the court, reducing the number of inmates.

"But that's something that has to be vetted out with the courts," Wolfinger said, adding that the sheriff's office can't release any inmates without a court order.

Kootenai County transports anywhere from five to 20 offenders per day to jails elsewhere, including Nez Perce and Bonner counties in Idaho and Ferry County in Washington. Those facilities hold a total of 25 to 50 inmates on any given day who have committed crimes in Kootenai County.

Jim Brannon, Kootenai County's clerk, said the county spent $477,742 during fiscal 2015 on housing inmates elsewhere and $659,416 in fiscal 2014. Those figures do not include transportation costs and personnel time to transport inmates.

The process to determine needs, define a project and build or add onto a facility can take as long as three years, institute representatives said.

That timeline is a bit frustrating, Brannon said, especially since the debate has been ongoing for several years.

"With the political environment, a lot of pieces could change during that (planning phase)," he said.

The institute did a study of the local jail in 1999 and, based on population trends, recommended the county build a 425-bed jail.

"The (commissioners) at that time did not want to spend the money to build that many beds," Wolfinger said.

The jail near the fairgrounds opened in 1987 with 98 beds. Through remodels it was expanded to 127 beds. The latest addition, which opened in 2002, increased capacity to 327 beds.