In January, I had the opportunity to meet with Editor Leslie Thompson with the Argus Observer to announce that I was running for re-election as the Payette County Sheriff. During the interview, we talked about staffing, emergency responder radio communications, expanding the 911 phone system, and jail overcrowding. Over this week, you will be able to hear about these topics and a few others, but today’s video focuses on the jail overcrowding and staffing issues that Payette County has been dealing with for numerous years.
The Payette County Jail has been dealing with overcrowding since before 2020. The inmate population issues continue to increase each year. A concern that citizens have brought up to me is in reference to crime. Idahoans have been watching the crime that is occurring in Oregon over the last several years and have wanted to make sure that we are tough on crime in Idaho. The laws in Idaho allow us to enforce laws and help prevent crime; however, the overcrowding in the jail really prevents law enforcement from arresting and putting individuals in jail. The Payette County Jail was over its maximum population for almost half of the year in 2023.
The areas where the overcrowding is the worst are in the women’s, protective custody, medical, and segregation housing units. The Payette County Jail is also not able to currently house any work-release inmates. The jail was last expanded in 2000. This expansion has increased our capacity to 69 inmates. The Payette County Jail Administration, Payette County Prosecutor, and Payette County Magistrate Judges meet as needed to discuss the jail population levels. These discussions focus on the jail population level and determining which inmates should be held on bond and which inmates should be released to the pre-trial release program. In February 2024, we had over 300 people on pretrial release, with 73% of the felony cases relating to drug possession. In the same time period, we had approximately 300 individuals on misdemeanor probation as well. The focus of the Payette County Sheriff’s Office is on weighing the risk to our community when we are involved in discussions about the jail population. The ultimate decision on which inmates are put on pretrial release or probation is up to the Judge’s discretion.
In addition to the overcrowding issues in the jail facility, we continue to have jail facility issues where the sewer pipes are collapsing, tiling in shower stalls are breaking, and the parts for the older plumbing fixtures are becoming scarce. These fixtures need to be updated to current standards so that the jail can continue to serve our community.
The second issue discussed in this video surrounds the staffing at the Payette County Sheriff’s Office. Payette County has continued to struggle at recruiting and retaining employees over the last several years. This was a problem prior to the pandemic, and it continued after the pandemic. Law Enforcement agencies in Idaho and across the nation have all seen a shortage of applications, retirements, and people leaving to work in the private sector. These issues are the same issues that affect the Payette County Sheriff’s Office. The Payette County Commissioners and I have worked to increase wages and enhance benefits to continue to attract qualified applicants.
Citizens have expressed that law enforcement should not reduce their hiring standards because we need qualified individuals serving our communities. The Payette County Sheriff’s Office has not reduced our standards; however, we have continued to have a smaller pool of applicants to choose from. We continue to refine our application process to ensure that we are hiring qualified people to serve our community. We train new deputies in field training programs before they go to the POST academy. It can take up to a year before a deputy has completed all training, including graduating from POST.
This is the first video in a 3-part series. Continue to watch this week to see the remaining two videos from this interview.