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."

CRIMINALS QUALIFY FOR MORE FREEDOMS

One key way the court system makes room is to divert more people to alternative programs, from supervised pre-trial release to electronic monitoring to the Sheriff's Inmate Labor Detail. The most recent addition to the county's punishment repertoire is "day reporting," in which offenders can go home but must submit to frequent drug or alcohol testing and meet a curfew that is monitored by deputies, said Cpl. Eric Williams of the jail's Alternative Sentencing division.

The types of crimes people can commit and still gain the relative freedom of an alternative sentence have increased since the jail-crowding issue came to a head, said Williams, who is in charge of the inmate labor detail.

"We're starting to get domestic batterers sentenced here, and second- and third-offense DUIs," he said. "We never got those before."

Magistrate judges, who handle misdemeanor crime in the county, are increasingly attaching "all options" to jail sentences so administrators can route inmates away from jail beds and into whichever alternative is most appropriate, said Raena Bull, a supervisor in Nampa magistrate court.

No magistrate or district court judges were available to comment for this story, but Bull and 3rd District Trial Court Administrator Dan Kessler acknowledged that lack of jail space is putting a strain on the courts.

"It's problematic to be able to hold people accountable," Kessler said.

One tricky area is probation violation: Although many people see that as a minor offense, he said, "it gets to be especially difficult for judges to handle. They've already had them in court and sentenced them to probation, but then there are violations, and the issue becomes, how flexible can you be?"

As of Oct. 1, nearly 1 in 4 of the jail's inmates were there for felony or misdemeanor probation violations.

FUTURE POSES NEW CHALLENGES

Bujak and Allgood say they worry about what will happen in the next few years as the population and number of arrests rise.

"We're flushing everyone but the worst of the worst out of the jail," Bujak said, adding, "we're trying to make room for felonies and any crimes of domestic violence.

"But what happens when all we have in the jail are felons and we're still going over our number?"

Another question, he said, is how the county would handle a large bust, like the multi-agency sweeps that crack down on drugs and gangs a couple of times a year. Those operations can nab 15 or 20 criminals in just a few hours - something the county jail would be unable to cope with these days.

Bujak said he will advocate creating new specialty courts in Canyon County to more quickly handle DUI and domestic violence cases, cutting down on the amount of county jail time served while defendants await sentencing. Specialty courts already are in place for drug crimes and for suspects with mental health issues.

"We're going to have to look at more efficient ways to process cases," he said.

LACK OF CONSEQUENCES PUMMELS MORALE

Although law enforcement leaders stress they're taking pains to make sure people who are a danger to the community get jail time, they say the necessary compromises are taking a toll on morale.

"We feel like we're making recommendations that are too soft," Bujak said.

And it's hard on officers to go against their instincts and release someone they believe should be in jail, said Allgood, recalling a traffic stop in Caldwell this past week.

"This person had nine suspensions on his driver's license, and he was driving," the police chief said. "We had to write him a ticket and let him go. He should have been in jail. It just doesn't make sense."

"We book and release DUI drivers," he added. "We have a great deal less discretion now."

Drunken driving is one category of crime that Canyon County was once famous for not using discretion on, Bujak noted.

"It used to be if you got a DUI in Canyon County, you were going to jail. Even on the first offense," he said. "That wasn't the case in Ada County, where there were alternatives. And it's just not the reality here anymore, either."

That may be the one bright side in the county's crowding conundrum, Bujak said: The system has been forced to re-examine sentencing, and not just for DUIs.

"We had judges who were putting people in jail for over 100 days because they were driving without a license," Bujak said. "That can't happen anymore."

Kristin Rodine: 377-6447