Growing prison population forces changes

12:59 PM MDT on Saturday, April 17, 2004


KTVB



Idaho's inmate population has reached an all-time high, with 6,085 people now behind prison bars.

The prison system has operated at close to 100 percent of capacity for nearly two years, but in November, the population started to climb.

Now, the prisons are desperately trying to accommodate all the inmates.

"It's challenging," said public information officer Teresa Jones. "We've got to find space."

Prison officials said minimum-security inmate populations are growing the fastest, and there are no extra beds. It means the prisons will have to get creative to find places to put people.

"We are looking at our facilities," Jones said. "We are trying to find efficiencies in all of our processes and really looking at what we can do to manage the growth."

Part of the plan is to set up a military tent at the minimum security South Idaho Correctional Institution, just outside of Boise. It will look like the one at the St. Anthony's work camp in eastern Idaho.

"We are going to lay slats here, flooring," said warden Ken Bennett. "It's going to be kind of like a pallet with plywood on top enough to hold 50 offenders."

The tent should be in place by the end of April, but the warden says security and comfort may be challenges.

"They aren't insurmountable though," Bennett said. "We will be able to get them dealt with."

There's yet another way to help accommodate so many inmates. A nearby slaughterhouse is being remodeled as an annex, and will house an additional 100 people.

"The area we are standing in right now will be the area where the inmates will eat," deputy warden John Hardison said. "Visiting [will be] in here, unless we can get a separate building for that."

It will also house minimum-security inmates.

"Its tentative opening date of July first, whether we will make that with funding, is unknown at this point," Hardison said.

Despite the efforts to expand, officials said its possible some inmates may have to be transferred somewhere else.

"At some point, we probably would have to go out of state," Jones said. "It's something we want to delay as much as possible."

The department is also trying to streamline the inmate process to get people in and out more efficiently, which will help open up beds.

This is the press release from the DOC


Apr 16, 2004 Orofino---Idaho’s prison population has reached an all-time high. There are 6,085 offenders incarcerated by the Idaho Department of Correction today (April 16, 2004). The population has grown by 255 since November 1st of last year. The department has managed prison facilities at 99-100% of capacity for nearly two years, but the population started climbing in November. Now all prison beds and most available county jail beds are full.

Director Tom Beauclair briefed the Board of Correction on the population growth during a Thursday Board Meeting at the Orofino prison (Idaho Correctional Institution-Orofino.) “Budget is critical,” Beauclair told the Board. “Our expectation is that there will be zero budget during the next year with a prison population that is expected to grow by 265 offenders in that same time.”

To manage the growth, the department has added tents to the St. Anthony Work Camp. The tents were placed inside the fence at the eastern Idaho prison the first week in April. They house 75 offenders. Cots were added to the North Idaho Correctional Center in Cottonwood, increasing the capacity by 15 in that facility. More tents will be added inside the compound at the South Idaho Correctional Institution south of Boise. Those tents will house 50 offenders and will go up the third week of April.

The department is currently converting an agricultural building south of Boise to house a 100-bed work center. The South Idaho Correctional Institution Annex should be completed in June, but was not funded to open. But Director Beauclair told the board he was looking at funding options if the beds are needed.

Even though the prison population is moving upward again, management changes by the department and partners in the criminal justice system helped reduce growth the past two years. “We are still about 1,000 offenders below where our population would have been if we hadn’t changed business practices. That amounts to about $50,000 each day in continued cost avoidance,” Beauclair told the Board.

Perspective on Growth

The department reached the 6,000-inmate mark on March 12. On that day there were 6,006 incarcerated offenders in Idaho Department of Correction custody.
The last milestone was reached in July 2000 as the prison population reached 5,000. The Idaho Correctional Center opened July 3, 2000 to help manage the population growth.
The current forecast anticipates the prison population will grow by 912 offenders over the next three years.

I dont have exact numbers at this time, but I can tell you that A LOT of the inmates are parole eligible at this time. There are many inmates who are denied parole for no reason at all. The Parole Commission keeps them there simply because "they can". If the Department of Correction would work harder at getting the Parole Commission to release eligible inmates then that would free up a lot of space and also save tax payers money. Housing inmates isn't cheap and thats not a big secret to anyone. Now the plan is to house them in tents. One of the places that they plan on setting up tents is right here in town (or actually the outside of town). I know that last year we had 17 days in a row of over 100 degree heat. I dont understand how they could expect anyone to live in that heat. Something other then tents must be the solution