As prisons overflow, state negotiating to house inmates elsewhere

BOISE – Prison officials are negotiating with Texas, Minnesota and Louisiana for space to house inmates from Idaho’s crowded prisons.

About 300 Idaho prisoners are expected to be sent to other states soon, prison officials said.

“We have 530 inmates in the county jails and we’re at 101 percent capacity in our (prison) beds,” said Pam Sonnen, of the Idaho Department of Correction. “I wish we were exaggerating horribly.”

On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered officials to remove nearly 200 beds from a packed Boise prison by Oct. 28. The state has 6,652 prisoners in prisons designed for 6,068.

Officials hope to house Idaho prisoners out of state at a cost of $53 per day per prisoner, said Sonnen. It costs the state $48.81 per day to house prisoners in Idaho.