Juvenile Detention

Kootenai County would like to double the size of its juvenile detention center and is asking taxpayers for help.

On Nov. 3, voters will decide whether to pass a two-year, $2 million facility levy.

The average owner of a $100,000 home with a homeowners’ exemption would pay about $12 per year if the levy passes.

Built in 1992 to hold 18 juveniles from Boundary, Bonner, Kootenai, Benewah and Shoshone counties, the center was expanded in 1995 to house 26. The proposed expansion would make room for 52.

The center’s average daily population is currently more than 40. Detention officials are forced to put two people in rooms designed for one and three people in rooms for two.

The expansion also would add two classrooms, two holding cells, two observation rooms, more recreation room and a kitchen.

As the county is responsible for the safety and education of the young offenders, the overcrowding could become a legal liability, said Al Friesen, the county’s director of juvenile services.

If the center is not expanded, Friesen said, the county will likely have to ship juveniles to other facilities in the state at a cost of $150 per day, per person. It currently costs the county about $100 per day to house each youth.

Despite the fact that two fiscally conservative county commissioners - Ron Rankin and Dick Panabaker - will also be on the ballot, the board of commissioners thought the problem was serious enough to place it on the ballot.