Officials: Latah jail poses pricey dilemma

MOSCOW — Latah County is facing an expensive dilemma with a jail that is failing to meet Idaho standards.

Sheriff Richard Skiles and Chief Deputy Tim Besst met with the Latah County Commissioners on Tuesday to discuss the future of the 51-year-old jail.

The county has struggled for years to ensure the facility meets Idaho standards, and it recently learned that it no longer complies with fire codes. The fire suppression needs to be replaced and there are fire egress issues that need to be fixed, including widening the jail doors to meet Idaho requirements, Besst said.

Additionally, the 35-bed jail needs upgrades to its electrical and plumbing systems. These compounding issues led officials to look into the costs of renovating the jail, building a new one or finding another option.

“It does feel like we are coming to a place where all of the insufficiencies are coming together at the same time,” Commissioner Tom Lamar said.

Renovating the jail or replacing it both come with a costly price tag.

Besst said replacing the fire suppression system and adding sprinkler heads would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Skiles said the six doors that need to be widened are embedded in the walls and the ceilings of the facility, which means construction on them could interfere with the building’s structural integrity. He estimates it would cost $100,000 per door to make these upgrades.

Skiles cautioned that if there are problems with the sewage system that’s built under the concrete floor, that could lead to an “unbearable expense.”

Other problems Skiles and Besst cited include not having enough natural light in the jail, not having enough office space, not having a separate medical screening area and not having enough storage space.

Besst said failing to fix these problems makes the jail a liability.

“Having the proper insurance on our jail is a necessity,” he said.

Building a new jail is an option, but it is a significantly pricey one. Besst estimates that a modern facility would cost $24-30 million, and that doesn’t include the cost to purchase the land.

Besst said counties around Idaho are facing similar problems with aging jails. Idaho has 44 counties, but only 35 jail facilities, he said. Nez Perce County is the only one in Latah County’s district that has a modern jail.

If the county decides to fix the current jail, the inmates will have to be temporarily moved to a new location during construction.

Besst said the Sheriff’s Office is working with another area jail to house its inmates. That will cause staffing issues, he said, because the deputy who arrests the suspect will have to transport them to an out-of-county jail.

Besst said counties, not the state, are responsible for funding their jails. Latah County may have to fund its jail by asking voters to approve a bond, or try to get a local-option sales tax on the ballot to pay for the facility.

Best said he prefers the local-option sales tax because it would take less time to fully fund the facility.

“For me, that is the best option out there,” Besst said.

The commissioners asked the Sheriff’s Office to continue finalizing the costs of renovating the jail and building a new one.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.