Prison Population Capped
Canyon County considers a May election after Tuesday’s jail bond defeat; authorities worry about crime, and consequences with no teeth. The failure last week of a bond measure to pay
for a new Canyon County jail leaves officials stymied on how to deal with overcrowding — and with a lawsuit-sparked limit on the number of inmates the jail can house. One alternative: sentence criminals to the Sheriff’s Inmate Labor Detail, like this one cleaning up trash at the Canyon County public shooting range. Complete details in the Idaho Statesman.
Local officials have long lamented the overcrowding at Canyon County’s jail. But now that the prisoner population has been capped to ward off a civil-rights lawsuit, local police and court leaders are equally worried about the toll from keeping the jail uncrowded.
“We’re letting people out of jail I really wish could be kept in jail,” said Caldwell police Chief Chris Allgood. “And most people with misdemeanors don’t even go to jail in the first place, because there’s no room.
“I believe the people who regularly commit crimes will realize they won’t be going to jail, and the deterrent will go away,” Allgood said. “Our crime rate could go back up.”
Police issue tickets or book and release nonviolent offenders who otherwise would go directly to jail. Prosecutors are seeking, and judges are granting, varied alternative sentences for crimes that earlier would have landed the perpetrators behind bars.
“My perception is, everyone is frustrated that Canyon County’s brand of justice can’t be enforced any more because the jail can’t hold the people,” County Prosecutor John Bujak said Friday, three days after voters defeated a $46 million bond measure to build a new, much bigger jail.
County leaders are considering putting the jail issue back on the ballot, possibly in May. But even if the bond had passed Tuesday, it would have taken at least two years to get the new jail up and running.
And in the meantime, the county must abide by an agreement it forged with the American Civil Liberties Union to keep the jail population within state standards. The August pact, prompted by a class-action lawsuit alleging inhumane conditions, means no more than 296 inmates in a structure that has held as many as twice that number in recent years. About 60 more can be kept in the adjacent 1940s-era jail, now known as “the annex.”
As a result of the inmate cap, local law enforcement agencies have signed agreements with the county not to jail most misdemeanor offenders.
“We’ll still take people to jail for anything violent – domestic violence, violation of protection orders,” Allgood said. “The jail has worked very well with us to take the people we bring in. They may have to make room somewhere else.”
Report continues on the Idaho Statesman.
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