Is fourth time a charm? Canyon County set to request $187M bond for new jail
As the population of Canyon County continues to grow and the crime rate remains steady, county officials will again seek voters’ approval for a bond to build a new jail, this time asking for $187 million.
On Monday, the Canyon County Board of Commissioners voted in favor of seeking the bond in the May 21 election to build a new jail. It will be the fourth time they’ve asked voters to approve a jail bond; the first three attempts were unsuccessful.
The proposed bond would cost taxpayers $94.43 per $100,000 of their taxable value.
On Tuesday, the commissioners discussed what language to use in the bond proposal and to educate voters about the need for a new jail.
The county already owns the piece of land where a new jail would be constructed, but it needs the funding to support the expense of construction. Prior to the decision to request a bond, the Canyon County Board of Commissioners paid to have a needs assessment done for a new jail, which found that if a new facility is built, it should have 1,055 beds — more than twice the current capacity of 477.
The bond must be repaid within 20 years, and its anticipated interest rate is 3.47 percent.
The Canyon County jail has had a slew of problems in recent years, ranging from a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, to multiple inmate escapes, to deputies being assaulted and riots at the facility. Overcrowding contributed to the conditions that led to the problems, further illustrating the need for a new facility, officials say.
Ideally, the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office has reported that it would like to keep the jail’s capacity at 80 percent, so that if inmates need to be separated, there is open space to do that.
As of Tuesday morning, the jail was at 87 percent of capacity overall; 100 percent of capacity for its available disciplinary custody beds; and 100 percent capacity for maximum security female beds.
Canyon County has only 76 beds in the jail for female inmates. On Tuesday, 15 females and 11 males were being housed in other counties because there was no room for them at the jail in Caldwell.
Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue has repeatedly argued that housing inmates in other counties is expensive, and it also costs more money to pay deputies to transfer inmates back and forth for court appearances.
In fiscal year 2018, Canyon County spent $721,375 on housing inmates in other counties.
Temporary fixes
The county has already been forced to use spend money on what were supposed to be temporary solutions, but a lack of funding has turned some of those into semi-permanent alternatives.
One of those solutions included the secured tent facility, built in 2005 next to the main jail. The tent facility was never meant to be a permanent solution and was initially intended to hold only work release inmates. Fourteen years later, the Sheriff’s Office still uses the tent to house inmates.
More recently, the county commission was forced to approve the use of secured trailers that will soon be installed in the parking lot. These are meant to be a temporary solution and could hold up to 122 beds designated for female inmates. It will cost the county roughly $4.5 million.
Another bond request
The Canyon County Commission will meet again on Wednesday to discuss the educational materials about the bond, put together by Ysabel Bilbao.
The commissioners hired Bilbao, the former spokeswoman for Gov. Brad Little’s campaign, to be their outreach coordinator for the bond election.
In January the Idaho Freedom Foundation wrote a letter to the county commissioners arguing that hiring Bilbao was a violation of election laws. The foundation’s letter stated that it did not believe Bilbao would offer “factually neutral” information to the voters. The county disagreed, saying in January that any allegations from the foundation about “electioneering” were misplaced and that the voters would benefit from more communication.
No further action was taken concerning Bilbao’s contract with the county.
To see the Canyon County jail daily statistics online, visit http://apps.canyonco.org/JailStatistics/. The county updates the numbers every morning.
This story was originally published March 5, 2019 at 1:47 PM.
