Kootenai County voters have generally supported tough-on-crime politicians and legislation, but they’ve been reluctant to pay for the resultant incarceration costs. A tour of the Kootenai County Jail and surrounding facilities reveals the outcome: Law enforcement desperately needs more room.

But a $147 million ballot item was shot down by voters last fall.

The county is back with a scaled-down proposal for a $57 million expansion that focuses on the jail. The additional 450 beds would allow jailers to handle 1,300 inmates, which is the projected need for the next 10 to 15 years. Currently, low-risk inmates are mixed with high-risk inmates, because the cramped quarters don’t allow for the needed segregation of the jail population. This sets up a volatile situation that is dangerous for jailers and inmates.

The expansion would also allow the county to curtail the practice of shipping inmates to out-of-state facilities, which carries an estimated price tag of $52 million over 10 years. It would be much more efficient if the county could keep its inmates “home,” because deputies wouldn’t have to spend so much time transporting them.

Voters turned down a $50 million expansion in 2005, so there’s no question this will be a tough sell. But part of the reason for the high price tag is that the expansion has been delayed for so long.

Nonetheless, the county deserves credit for finding creative ways to shave construction costs. Last year’s measure sought $88 million for the jail; now it’s $57 million. Once the economy rebounds, so will costs. It would be cheaper to build it now.

The county is proposing to pay for the expansion with a half-cent sales tax increase over the next 10 years. What makes this an optimum time for passage is that half of the increase would finance the expansion and the other half would go toward property tax relief. But this state-approved local-option tax expires this year. Voters would be wise to take advantage of it now.

Another advantage of the sales-tax boost is that tourists and other out-of-state people would help pay for the jail.

To adopt the expansion, a supermajority (two-thirds) of voters will need to approve two ballot items. One would approve a bond for the project. The other would OK the half-cent sales tax increase.

If voters say yes to the expansion, they shouldn’t stop there. They should push for alternative punishments and more flexibility in sentencing to ease the substantial costs of criminal justice.