Jail Expansion Funding County Should Ask If Bigger Jail Necessary

Nearly a year to the day after they first rejected it, Kootenai County voters once again will be asked on May 23 to approve a 10 percent sales tax surcharge to expand the county jail.

The carrot on the stick is that this $25 million tax increase will be sugared with about $12 million in property tax relief - shifting the tax burden further toward the working poor while providing significant reductions for nonresident property owners who occupy the preponderance of high-ticket waterfront property here.

Much name-calling and blame-placing ensued after last year’s defeat of this measure. Rather than addressing voter concerns - the inequity of the tax shift and fundamental questions as to the need to triple jail capacity - its proponents just resubmitted their proposal.

One cannot dispute that our jail is now overcrowded. We are locking up more people for many more reasons than we were when voters approved its initial construction by 2-1 in 1984.

However, Kootenai County will not take steps to live within its means. Responsible citizens should find this take-it-or-leave-it sales pitch for the resubmitted tax surcharge and jail expansion disturbing - especially so in light of subsequent, positive and more cost-effective suggestions by people like former county Commissioner Frank Henderson.

Our commissioners should treat tax increases and fiscal responsibility the way they did before they were elected. Legislative remedies need to be explored by Kootenai County before a nickel is expended on new jail space.

Commissioners must use their bully pulpit to lobby for them while the Legislature still is in session:

Counties are required to provide space for anyone jailed for up to a year for most offenses. Every time the Legislature creates a new crime, it in essence passes a new unfunded mandate to the county taxpayers. No new crimes should be created without commensurate state funding for added jail space.

The Supreme Court should be persuaded to set a more reasonable misdemeanor bail schedule. The court recently increased bail for certain nonviolent misdemeanors by a factor of 10. Most working people can arrange bail of $500 and thus vacate a jail bed.

Faced with $5,000 bail, that same individual will sit out a weekend before facing a judge, in which case his or her bail likely will be reduced to $500 or eliminated entirely. The purpose of bail is to ensure that the accused appears in court. Raise bail excessively, you need a larger jail.

Inasmuch as we are processing more people for more crimes, the Legislature must be persuaded to fund an additional judge to cope with the added caseload so that we have a part-time night and weekend court. This would expedite felony bail determination and take enormous pressure off the jail at a fraction of the capital cost the commissioners are pushing. To date, we haven’t even asked.

Judges should be encouraged to use community service, home detention and halfway houses in lieu of jail.

Our elected officials are abdicating their leadership responsibilities and throwing money at the problem.

What saddens me is that we have an obvious problem: too many people in a jail too small. But we are far from agreement on how to solve it or how to pay for the solution.

Until voters agree upon a need and a solution, until they can be convinced that all other remedies have been exhausted, they will not succumb to take-it-or-leave-it threats.

We first need a full public discourse on the basic question: Is the jail too small, or are we putting too many people in jail?

Glen Walker is a Coeur d’Alene attorney and former Kootenai County prosecutor.