A new import for Idaho: Other states’ prison inmates?

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter wants to change state laws to let private prisons set up in the state and house out-of-state prisoners – as long as Idaho gets first rights to the beds. That’s part of the plan for getting Idaho a new and sorely needed 2,100-bed prison within the next three years. The state’s expecting to be short 5,500 prison beds over the next 10 years and now has hundreds of inmates housed out of state.

“It’s really a question of capital,” Otter said Thursday. “We just simply, without absolutely busting the budget, we can’t make that kind of capital available as we need it.” Private companies, on the other hand, “can go out in the marketplace and kind of work their magic.” Read my full story here in today’s Spokesman-Review.