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Canyon County ships out some inmates

The county will spend an extra $40 per prisoner daily in an effort to curb overcrowding at the jail.

BY KRISTIN RODINE - krodine@idahostatesman.com

Copyright: © 2009 Idaho Statesman

Published: 11/20/09


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"I don't have a choice," Sheriff Chris Smith said Thursday.

He said jail numbers have been creeping over the cap despite a wide range of measures - including alternative sentences and encouraging police to book and release most suspects rather than jailing them.

Eight inmates were moved to the Gem and Payette county jails - four to each - Wednesday, a county jail transport coordinator said. Another 14 were transferred to the state penitentiary. Canyon County will have to pick up the tab for the four in the Gem jail, she said, but the others - plus a few sent to Elmore County last week - are serving state sentences and their board will be covered by the state.

On Thursday, 10 Canyon County inmates were transported - four to Owyhee County, three to Gem, one to Elmore and two to Washington County. Each will cost Canyon County $40 per day.

At that rate, Smith worries the county will quickly burn through the $250,000 set aside to cover such contingencies for the full year ending Sept. 30, 2010.

The county would use that full amount if it averaged slightly more than 17 prisoners in other counties' jails throughout the year. After just two days of transfers, the county already is obligated to pay for 14 inmates being housed elsewhere.

The county agreed to keep the jail population within state standards - no more than 296 people in the main jail - in order to resolve a class-action lawsuit alleging inhumane conditions. Before the American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit, population in the chronically overcrowded jail had soared as high as 630 inmates.

County officials have been trying to build a new, bigger jail for years, but bond elections this month and in 2006 failed to reach the needed two-thirds supermajority.

Kristin Rodine: 377-6447

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