The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office reports that the Kootenai County Jail reached a record high population over the weekend.
As of 5 a.m. Sunday, the jail had 459 people in custody, of which about 75 percent were felony bookings and 25 percent misdemeanors. The jail is presently designed to house 327 inmates, with an expansion underway that will raise the number of available beds by 125. The sheriff's office says the expansion will also leave unfinished space that will allow for the addition of 108 more beds if completed.
Construction of the expansion is expected to be completed by the fall and will increase the total number of beds available to 452, with the overall potential of having 560 beds available if the unfinished, "shelled in" portion is completed.
"If present numbers of bookings remain consistent, the Kootenai County Jail, with the current expansion plans, will be full the day the jail is opened. The only other options will be to complete the remaining 108 beds that remain unfinished and/or continue to house inmates in other jails in Idaho and Washington," Captain Kim Edmondson wrote in a release Monday.
In addition to the expansion plans, the sheriff's office has teamed up with the County Human Resources Department to aggressively recruit and hire detention deputies to staff the expansion. Those interested, should email KCSOrecruit@kcgov.us
(story: Matt Pusatory, KHQ Local News Web Producer, KHQ.com; image: KHQ.com)