Talks Ongoing for Regional Jail
A regional jail study presented Monday to area sheriffs and county commissioners warned the wait for a new multi-county facility may take several years. Story from the Magic Valley Times News.
That delay may only encourage Jerome County to again ask voters to approve funding a new county jail.
The Regional Offender Management Center Concept feasibility study was launched this month and is expected to conclude in September 2010.
Commissioners and sheriff’s department officials from Twin Falls, Jerome, Gooding and Lincoln counties attended the meeting, along with state Reps. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, Donna Pence, D-Gooding, and Bert Stevenson, R-Rupert.
State correction officials also attended the meeting, and indicated that local jails may serve more future use in housing state prisoners.
Consultant Robert Marsh, of Research Training Evaluation Associates of Boise, and Idaho Department of Corrections Director Brent Reinke said state inmates could be incarcerated closer to home rather than in existing state prisons. Marsh used the example of parole violators who could go to local jails rather than prisons.
A previous regional jail proposal that included participation from Jerome, Camas and Lincoln counties and the state had been targeted for Gooding. It became financially unfeasible when the state chose not to participate.
All three Jerome County commissioners recently expressed concern that the county’s needs for a jail surpasses its ability to wait several years for a regional jail, due to safety and civil liability associated with the existing 35-year-old county jail.
“I don’t see a practical solution coming out of this for several years and that is not going to meet your immediate needs,” Vaughn Killeen, former Ada County sheriff and past director of the Idaho Sheriff’s Association, told Jerome County Commissioner Joe Davidson.
The proposed Jerome County Justice Facility that would have included a new jail and sheriff’s station fell short of the state mandated two-thirds super-majority approval by just 25 votes on Nov. 3.
The ballot question asked voters to authorize the county to enter into a 30-year, $13.5 million lease-to-purchase agreement for a 165-bed jail.
Jerome County’s business plan included renting excess jail beds to other counties, producing revenue to offset lease payments and operating costs.
Twin Falls County had expressed an interest in renting jail beds from Jerome County.
Davidson said the lease-purchase plan came so close to passage during the Nov. 3 election that the county is likely to proceed with another run at voters in May.
Killeen said he hopes Jerome County succeeds.
Twin Falls County commissioners Tom Mikesell and George Urie both questioned the lengthy timeframe of the regional jail study.
“We’ve selected this area (Magic Valley) because of the interest,” Killeen said of the decision to do the study. “How do you create the funding stream to keep it running from year to year,” he asked. “Who (or which sheriff’s department) would run it?”
Killeen used the Mini-Cassia Criminal Justice Center as an example of a multi-county jail that has proven successful since the early 1990s.
State funding issues remain an issue for state programs, Reinke said. “We are at 2004 budget levels rapidly going toward 2003,” he said.
He added that the state would need new prisons in the future and if the state were to participate in a regional facility, a minimum of between 400 and 500 jail beds would be needed.
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