By Gretel Kauffman
The Times-News
TWIN FALLS, Idaho — A citizens’ committee has begun considering options to solve the crowding issue at the Twin Falls County jail and courthouse.
The group, made up of nine residents from across Twin Falls County, spent its first meeting Thursday getting to know the issues at hand. Over the next three months, the committee will discuss expanding the now-too-small jail and courthouse facility to alleviate overcrowding and prepare for expected county growth in the decades to come.
There is widespread agreement that both the jail and courthouse have run out of space, but some debate over how and when to expand those facilities.
Options on the table include adding onto the existing jail and courthouse facilities downtown and building new facilities elsewhere.
The county could provide temporary housing for inmates if it is unable to immediately pass a bond to pay for the new construction. Commissioner Jack Johnson and jail administrator Capt. Doug Hughes will travel to Missouri this week to look at one potential form of temporary housing.
County officials including Johnson, Hughes, Sheriff Tom Carter and Clerk Kristina Glascock gave committee members a crash course on the Twin Falls justice system Thursday, outlining the factors that they say have played a role in creating the current situation, including a rise in felony cases in the county and prison crowding throughout the state.
There were 313 jail inmates in Twin Falls County on Thursday, Hughes said, and 249 in the 224-bed jail. On any given day, roughly 50 Twin Falls inmates are housed in facilities in Jerome County, Blaine County and elsewhere.
Johnson told the group he believes the cost of housing inmates outside of Twin Falls County will be “one of the biggest sledgehammers the public is probably going to get their eyes opened on.”
The county is on track to spend an estimated $600,000 on out-of-county housing this year, Johnson said; if the jail population continues to rise, that cost could be as high as $1 million next year.
A study commissioned by the county last year projected that a new jail would need at least 400 beds to cover the county’s needs for the next 30 years. But those numbers may already be outdated, Hughes cautioned committee members.
“I’m not exactly sure how those numbers are going to look,” Hughes said. “The best we can do right now is hope it plateaus off for a little bit so we can gather our feet underneath us.”
The group will meet every other Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Planning and Zoning Conference Room at County West. The next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 28.
©2018 The Times-News (Twin Falls, Idaho)