'If you have a safe jail, you have a safer community'

Ada County voters get to decide if they want to pay for an expansion of the county jail.

It’s been 20 years since the jail has any undergone any kind of large expansion. In those 20 years, the county's population has grown by more than 200,000 people.

Every day this year, the Ada County Jail has been above its operational capacity of 949 people, according to Sheriff Matt Clifford.

Below that level, Clifford says they can run the jail efficiently and safely.

"It's pretty common for something violent to happen inside an overpopulated area," he said. "If you stack all of them in there and have 1,116 inmates, it's going to be chaos."

The Ada County Jail regularly houses more than 1,000 people per day.

"It may not be daily, but we may have more than one instance [of violence]," Clifford said. "We have had more than one or two instances happen a day and maybe have nothing happen one day and a lot another day."

More violence means more medical bills covered at the taxpayers' expense.

Elmira Yanez has been at the jail since August. She's living in a 6-person room.

The jail expansion would mean more room and more security.

"It sucks because sometimes you're not in discipline and they have to put you in these little rooms and these little rooms really are not that fun to be in," she said.

Nancy Lewis is stuck in the same room.

"I should not be back here. I'm not on discipline," Lewis said.

She'd much rather be in the big open dorm space with fewer restrictions. But she has to stay put because there just isn't enough space.

If the bond were to pass, the jail could add 294 beds.

The bond would also allow the county to increase the kitchen's capacity.

"The kitchen we use today is made to serve about 1,000 meals a day. We serve 4,000 meals a day out of it," Clifford said.

It would allow them to increase warehouse and booking space, as well as space for inmates' belongings.

"The inmate property room is completely overrun with inmate property because it was built in 1995," Clifford said.

It would also mean a more secure transportation area. It's where people are moving in and out of the jail all day long for things like court and doctor's visits.

"If you have those doors open and you're trying to load prisoners in and out of vehicles, you present opportunity. Statistically, you can see that most escapes happen during transport because that's the most opportune moment," Clifford said.

Clifford says their bookings at the jail per year have been going down over the last several years, but their average length of stay has increased.

"We are seeing a larger amount of felonies that are brought in. It takes a little longer to get through the court process. So lower bookings but our population is bigger and stays longer," Clifford said. "We don't have people that are sitting taking up space in our jail on marijuana possessions. We just don't... We want that space for the more dangerous population."

Clifford says the bond is all about the safety of his staff, the inmates and the community.

"We want to make sure we have a safe jail because that allows us to focus on making sure that people that are in there stay in there and don't get out and wreak havoc on the community," Clifford said. "Public safety, period, is what we do, and if you have a safe jail, you have a safer community."

If approved, Clifford expects the expansion will meet their needs at least through 2040.

The bond will cost $3.60 cents per $100,000 of taxable assessed value per year. Clifford says the average Ada County homeowner will pay between $12 and $20 per year.

If the bond is approved, Clifford expects the expansion would be complete within two years.

The measure needs two-thirds support from voters to pass.

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