Idaho County Struggles With Crowding
Canyon County ID and local police have a plan to put fewer offenders in the county jail to alleviate crowding.
The county and Nampa and Caldwell police have written a proposal to book and release more people arrested by the cities’ police officers. The effort is intended to reduce the number of inmates in the county jail. The reason: Canyon County faces a possible lawsuit from the ACLU and reduced insurance from the Idaho Counties Risk Management Program if it fails to take steps to reduce crowded conditions … The county’s main jail has about 425 inmates in a facility built for 250. “The whole idea is to get our numbers down to whatever requests they (the ACLU of Idaho) are going to give us,” Smith said.
The book-and-release plan could be used with individuals for such offenses as speeding tickets and petty theft. It will not be used in cases of violent offenses, such as domestic violence or firearm offenses, Smith said …
Other potential measures to alleviate jail overcrowding
- Lower the cost for work release inmates from $20 to $12.50 a day. This could draw more qualifying inmates to the work release center. Commissioners are slated to consider the reduction this week.
- More use of security ankle bracelets. Some offenders waiting for sentencing could be released from jail with tracking ankle bracelets. Their jail time wait for sentencing can be as much as 10 days.
More information on this from Idaho Press-Tribune.