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New $7.5 million jail open for business
Following an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday, authorities began moving prisoners into the new Elmore County Jail Sunday.
The transfer of the 35 prisoners occurred without incident and initial phases of the new $7.5 million facility got underway.
With a crowd of more than 50 people on hand, Sheriff Rick Layher, looking like a proud parent, officially opened the new jail Saturday and he and his staff conducted tours of the building throughout the afternoon for interested citizens.
The crowd at the ribbon cutting ceremonies included former Sheriff Bob Mendiola, district judge Mike Wetherell, a number of elected officials, friends and family of the sheriff's department staff, and interested citizens.
"This is a project we've been working on for more than 15 years," Layher said, referring to the four efforts over that time to get a bond passed, before final approval was given by the voters two years ago.
Layher noted that deteriorating conditions at the old jail resulted in a series of lawsuits being filed on behalf of inmates beginning in 1990. The first few attempts to build a new jail all failed when voters rejected bond proposals for a new facility.
"It's been a battle," Layher said.
"There's been at least five committees" who worked on jail bond proposals and jail designs, he said, "and each time this went up to the voters, the design was improved upon.
"The citizens of Elmore County should be proud of this facility, and its design," he said, which is a standard other counties are looking at.
Commissioner Larry Rose thanked the community for the passage of the bond two years ago, on the fourth try. "I'm not sure what happened," he said, "maybe the people got tired of us, but we didn't want to push anything on the people they didn't want.
"Finally, it was the taxpayers who decided we needed this," and, he added, the approval came just in time, since the old jail was in danger of being shut down by the courts.
Commissioner Connie Cruser thanked the sheriff and the jail staff, headed by Lynn McCallum, for their work in seeing the project through to completion, and praised the contractor, noting the project was "completed on time and just a tish under budget."
She also announced that following a review last week by the Idaho Department of Corrections, the county and the state will soon enter into an agreement whereby the state will contract for 60-70 beds to be used for minimum security prisoners.
"That will help our finances," in running the jail, she said, and Elmore County will become the first county in the state to enter into such a partnership with the Department of Corrections.
"This is not fancy," she added, describing the new jail, "but it is state of the art and so secure" that it will protect both the jail staff and the community. "It's really been a boon to Elmore County," she said.
Arlie Shaw, who was elected to the county commission just last fall, but who served on one of the first of the jail bond committees, noted that "it's been a long, hard struggle."
He said that with the expanded room and capabilities of the new jail, the county will be able "to start some programs that will help the inmates and the community," especially programs involving drug and alcohol treatment.
The new facility contains 138 beds and a state-of-the-art control center where jailers can monitor, both by television and direct visual observation, all of the confinement areas. It has a huge modern kitchen that can accommodate any future jail expansion that might be needed, an enclosed private visitor's area, and a number of "program rooms" where rehabilitation programs can be offered. "Our philosophy is try to put them out better than we got them in," said McCallum, who oversees a jail staff that has been expanded by nine officers.
The new jail also features a medical area and the county has contracted for the services of a doctor who will look at prisoners every day and dispense medication, pulling the responsibility for health care off the uniformed officers.
Eventually, the jail will be the home of the sheriff and the chief Deputy, Nick Schilz, who have offices there, as well as the civil/warrants office and the new expanded 911 dispatch center.
Layher and Shilz will probably move in some time in the next week or so, but the civil/warrants office and dispatch will stay at the old Law Enforcement Building until the equipment for the expanded 911 services can be installed, probably some time near the end of June, Layher said.
The old LEB will be home to the detective and patrol officers for he sheriff's department. Driver's licenses will still be issued there, and fingerprint requests will still be handled at the LEB, but Layher said it may be necessary to establish specific days and times of the week for those services.
"We've still got a lot of details to work out, and we ask that the public be patient with us" while various technical issues are resolved, he said.
He said the LEB will now close at 5 p.m., instead of staying open all night for walk-in complaints, as in the past, but a pay telephone will be installed in the foyer area that citizens can access, and using that phone they can contact the dispatchers inside by calling 911.
"Anytime we make a move like this, we ask the people to bear with us" during the transition, Layher said, adding that anyone with a complaint should contact him directly. "This will be a tough transition, and we'll go through some trials and errors, I'm sure," but by early summer he expects all the transition issues to be resolved.