Idaho prisoners need to be in Idaho. Not Colorado, not Texas. Here.

A contract to send some Idaho prisoners to a private prison in Colorado may also involve a long-term lease of the facility.

Details have not been released, but Gov. Brad Little told the Idaho Statesman editorial board Wednesday that the state is considering several options, including a long-term lease of a prison in Colorado.

“We’re looking for capacity,” Little said. “I’d love to have it in state, but there just isn’t room. So we’re looking for capacity where we can be a big enough part of it that we can make sure the programs are done right. We’re not just kind of renting rooms. We’re making sure we’ll have boots on the ground there to make sure we’re doing things right. I’d still rather have them (in state). Farming out your corrections is not a good idea.”

We just hope “long-term” doesn’t mean “really long-term.” We understand that Idaho has immediate needs for prison space, but housing Idaho prisoners out of state needs to be a quick fix that’s ended quickly.

The state’s Board of Correction voted last month to enter into a five-year contract with private prison contractor CoreCivic to house as many as 1,000 Idaho prisoners at the 1,488-bed Kit Carson Correctional Center in Burlington, Colorado, which closed in 2016, according to the Idaho Press, which first reported on the contract. Kit Carson closed, ironically enough, because of declining prison populations there. Kit Carson’s population had dropped to 402 people who were sent off to other prison facilities, according to the Denver Post.

Idaho has not signed a contract with CoreCivic, “but we’re getting close,” Jeff Ray, Department of Correction spokesman, wrote in an email Wednesday to the Statesman.

Under the terms of the proposed contract, Idaho initially would send 250 male inmates to Kit Carson, and over time, Idaho expects to send about 1,100 prisoners to the facility sometime in the next fiscal year, Ray wrote.

Those inmates would include those currently at the Eagle Pass Correctional Facility in Eagle Pass, Texas, according to Ray.

Entering into a contract with private company CoreCivic does not instill confidence. This is the same company, albeit with a different name (Corrections Corporation of America), that ran the Idaho Correctional Center in Kuna, which was so violent that prisoners called it “the gladiator school.” Corrections Corporation of America also was later found by an Associated Press investigation to have falsified work records, and the state severed ties with the company and brought the prison system back in house.

We’re glad that Idaho is getting prisoners out of Eagle Pass, Texas, run by Geo Group, which also has a bad track record of taking care of Idaho’s prisoners, including one death there last year.

“The corrections board is looking at some capacity,” Little said, “but right now, short-term, I can’t even get one built, because I’ve got jails where people are laying on the floor. We’ve got a fiscal crisis and a humane crisis.”

Idaho has about 9,500 people in custody but only 7,750 beds spread among six facilities spread throughout the state prison system.

The state has sent 651 Idaho prisoners to Eagle Pass, and another 800-900 prisoners are housed in county jails across the state.

We’ve got a problem.

Colorado is at least closer than Texas, but it’s still too far away for family members to keep in close contact, a key to rehabilitating prisoners and keeping them out of prison once they’re released.

The bottom line is that Idaho prisoners need to be in Idaho.

Little has talked about “working the problem from both ends,” and we give him credit for trying to tackle “short-term, medium-term and long-term” problems, as he told the editorial board on Wednesday.

“My short-term problem is jail space, my medium-term problem is recidivism and the revolving door, and my long-term problem is keeping people from getting into the system,” Little told the board.

He said that his budget “addresses all three.”

Little’s proposed budget, a 13.2% increase from last year’s, if approved by the Legislature, adds 160 beds in a new Twin Falls Community Reentry Center and another 146 beds at a remodeled building at the state prison in Kuna. That would add capacity in the state correctional system. At the same time, Little proposes about $6 million in new money for what he’s calling a “Connection and Intervention Station” for high-risk, supervised parolees to keep them out of prison, plus another $500,000 for community recovery centers.

Little said he’s confident that this puts Idaho on the right path to stemming the flow of people entering the prison system and, perhaps even more importantly, keeping people from re-entering.

We recognize that Idaho needs a quick solution to deal with an immediate need for capacity.

We just don’t want it to become a “long-term” fix.

This story was originally published February 23, 2020 at 5:00 AM.