Watson to pitch regional jail idea

Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson is still pitching his idea to build a jail for sentenced inmates on county property next to the landfill south of Coeur d’Alene near Fighting Creek.

Yet he’s also looking at other solutions for jail overcrowding, including working with Spokane County to build a regional jail.

Watson plans to have lunch Wednesday with newly elected Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich.

Watson wants to talk about everything from mutual aid agreements and collaboration for a training center to the idea of a regional jail.

“Criminals don’t respect the state line, why should we,” Watson said Monday while at the groundbreaking for the county’s new trash transfer station west of Post Falls. “Interstate 90 is a crime corridor.”

Both Spokane and Kootenai counties have overcrowded jails, as do many other counties in the region.

Spokane County leaders are debating whether to build an $80 million jail addition or a $450 million complex near Spokane International Airport.

Last fall, Kootenai County voters rejected a $50 million jail expansion and county leaders opted against putting a similar $55 million sales tax proposal to expand the jail on the November ballot.

Capt. Jerry Brady, the Spokane County jail commander, said the regional jail is a preliminary idea. If it gains momentum, the first step would be to hire a consultant to figure out how big the regional jail should be – perhaps 4,500 beds – and to determine the best way to pay for it. It’s possible both Idaho and Washington could contribute in addition to the federal government, Brady said.

“There are just an awful lot of options,” he said.

Watson is waiting for the two new Kootenai County commissioners to take office Jan. 8 before reviving his idea to establish a work farm at the landfill. He envisions a place where inmates could till the soil and grow food for themselves. The inmates also could work at the landfill, sorting garbage and recyclables.

The idea is to keep the majority of the inmates, who are still awaiting sentence and require frequent trips to the downtown courthouse, at the current jail on Government Way. The county would house the sentenced inmates – about 30 percent of the population – south of town at the work farm.

Watson wants the county to join with the four other northern counties, and perhaps the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, to house their sentenced inmates and share the cost of the facility and staff.