Canyon County runs out of space in its jail

CALDWELL, Idaho – The sheriff of Idaho’s fastest-growing county said his deputies can no longer make arrests on more than 4,000 outstanding warrants because there’s no room at the jail.

Overcrowding at the Canyon County jail and resistance to a temporary work-release center for additional inmates are hampering law enforcement, Sheriff Chris Smith said. The county is the state population center, at the west end of the Boise Valley.

“We’re not actively trying to serve warrants because we don’t have a place to put (offenders),” Smith said Wednesday. “We are serving the more serious warrants, but there are literally thousands of others that need attention as well.”

Overcrowding is also a problem for the state prison system, which has a capacity of 6,068 but on Wednesday had 6,437 inmates serving time. State inmates are moving into tents at the minimum security Southern Idaho Correctional Institution near Boise and at the state’s prison work camp in St. Anthony in southeastern Idaho.

The 575-bed Canyon County jail here had a record 606 inmates this week. Some have been sleeping on the floor. The jail has long been criticized as overcrowded by the Idaho chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Over the past 18 months, the jail added 100 beds, primarily by using triple bunk beds. In the past month, county employees cleared space in a storage room and the inmate law library area to make room for 16 new beds

But there’s still not enough room, Lt. Chad Sacramento said.

“If they walk in the door all we can do is put them in here, and the ACLU is already looking at us,” he said. “Our facility is way undersized for our community, and that’s the problem.”

From mid-2003 to mid-2004, the U.S. Census Bureau said Canyon County added 6,000 residents, a 4 percent increase. Arrests in the county increased by almost 1,000 from 2003 to 2004.

The county is proceeding with plans to build a 224-bed work release center near the jail, but some Caldwell officials worry the tent-like structure may hurt the city’s image.

Smith said the work-release structure would be surrounded by mostly industrial buildings. The need for more jail space should take precedence over aesthetic concerns, he said.