Volunteers Sought For Jail-Study Panel

Volunteers still are being sought to form a committee that will study crowding at the Kootenai County Jail.

The group’s second meeting will be Thursday night in the sheriff’s department basement, 5500 N. Government Way. It begins at 7 p.m. Committee members will study the need for expanding the current facility and other alternatives to ease crowding at the 11-year-old facility.

Jail population has soared during recent years. It reached a single-day high of 211 in 1996 and regularly hovers around 160.

Built in 1987 to house 95 inmates, the jail’s capacity has been expanded to hold 127. Much of the office and storage space has been converted to cells.