Jail still has plenty of room

A bus with prisoners arrives at the Nez Perce Co. Jail. (KLEW File)

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Story Published: Dec 19, 2009 at 10:42 AM PST

Story Updated: Dec 19, 2009 at 10:42 AM PST

By Anne Harding

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LEWISTON - It's been open six months, and for the most part operations going at Nez Perce County's new jail are going smoothly.

“There's always a few bugs with any new project and we have had a few technical glitches,” said Jail Commander Lt. Jack McGee. “Luckily the whole jail was under a warranty for the first year, so there hasn't been any problems that I have seen that

One of the main reasons the new facility was built was to help with overcrowding, an issue the county dealt with often at the old jail. McGee says now they have plenty of room, with an average of 85 inmates for their 150 beds.

The goal was to keep the more cells full, with other jurisdictions taking advantage of the new jail.

County Commissioner Doug Zenner said revenue projections from the jail fell short during the last fiscal year, and that it's too early to make any predictions for this fiscal year, which began October 1.

McGee says the extra space allows housing inmates in this jail when other counties run out of room, something he says they're seeing more of. And that could help the current budget.

“When we first moved in here the statewide population starting dropping, so some of those counties that we were kind of counting on to supply us with inmates didn't have them,” said McGee. “Now it's starting to build up again and we're getting more and more IDOC (Idaho Dept. of Correction) inmates, I think we just got seven today, we are getting seven to 10 again next week. The Nez Perce Tribe is utilizing us for their initial arrests and things like that, so it's starting to build. Our population is slowly creeping up every day.

Kootenai County is one of the counties McGee says they're working with to house their inmates. He says that county’s jail is always overcrowded and it's great that Nez Perce finally has the room and ability to help out counties like Kootenai.

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