County begins to gear up for jail bond vote

What do your favorite fishing hole and the Elmore County Jail have in common? According to some pundits, the answer is that both are catch and release.

When Elmore County voters go to the polls in November, they will not only be selecting the people who will lead the country for the next four years, they also will be asked to determine the fate of the Elmore County jail.

A super majority, 66 2/3 percent, approval is needed for the $7.5 million bond to construct the 28,500 sq. ft. facility to hold 76 inmates, with possible expansion up to 130 beds.

For the owner of a $100,000 property, it would mean an increase of $52.50 per year over the 15 year maturity of the bond.

Elmore County currently averages housing approximately 30 inmates daily in addition to renting bed spaces in neighboring counties.

Why not just continue to rent beds? The county is doing that now, explained Sheriff Rick Layher. But it is only a short term fix, he said. The need continues to grow. Eventually our neighbors will need their beds and then we will have to build. Building a new facility will never be cheaper than now. Building and operating now will mean nearly $5,980,000 savings over renting 75 beds over the next 20 years.

Jail captain, Deputy Lynn McCallum explained, the current jail poses a number of public safety issues. The maximum capacity is 18 beds -- 21 allowed if hallway space is used.

Victims and arrestees in plain view of each other could complicate prosecution.

Prisoners are brought in the front door and pass through public waiting areas. Prisoners use the sallyport (prisoner entrance) for exercise.

The public may be sitting next to an inmate in the lobby while taking a drivers license test or filling out paperwork.

Judges are reluctant to sentence individuals to time in jail due to the lack of beds. Elmore County currently has individuals waiting for jail space to become available in order for them to serve their sentence.

The lack of space means that rooms originally designed for officer training are now used for storage and inmate housing. Work release inmates are housed in a basement courtroom. Files and reports are stored haphazardly throughout the facility.

Prisoner rights cases touch on nearly every aspect of jail operations, including: staffing; access to courts and counsel; mail and telephone; library and law library; reading materials; religion; classification and segregation; education and vocational opportunities; discipline, due process and grievance procedures; visitation and media visits; medical care; enforced idleness; recreation; food service; behavior modification; and living conditions.

One in six lawsuits filed in federal courts today is a prisoner rights action. Thirty percent of all jails are involved in a pending law suit or are under court order to improve conditions.

County officials have long recognized the current Elmore County jail facility is inadequate to meet the needs of the county and the board of commissioners have determined that it is within the public good to erect a jail of suitable size and capacity for current and future growth.

It was nearly a decade ago when county voters were first asked to allow the expansion of the current facility -- a measure that failed by a narrow margin.

"In all honesty, the Elmore County Jail is about the third worst facility in the state, and the other two who are in even worse shape are either being replaced, or about to be abandoned due to unacceptable liability exposure," wrote Bill Lynn, coordinator for the Idaho Sheriff's Association District III Jail Inspection Team.

The current jail, built approximately 30 years ago, no longer meets the minimum guidelines established for detention facilities. Courts recognize the guidelines as adequate for detention facilities. Other small county jails of similar age were recently closed by the courts when conditions no longer met minimum facility standards. The capacity of the old jail was reached several years ago and adaptive programs such as work release can no longer ease the overcrowding. There were periods over the past several years when a 'waiting list' had to be established for persons who had to remain in the community while waiting for available space in the current jail to serve time imposed by the county court.

Meanwhile, the population of Mountain Home, and the county overall, continues to rise. While the number of crimes committed as a percentage of the population has remained fairly constant, the overall growth in the population places additional strain on an already overburdened system.

"Often folks forget that the county jail serves as the only detention facility for the county as a whole, but also as a holding and processing facility for Mountain Home, other local law enforcement and federal detainees in transit," said Sheriff Layher.