MOSCOW, Idaho — There was no holding back on the harsh reality Tuesday.
"Latah County Jail has failed the mandates for fire egress, which is mandated," said Latah County Chief Deputy Tim Besst. "We have to maintain current codes under Idaho jail standards. It's just…we fail it."
The Latah County Sheriff's Office outlined the state of the 51-year-old jail for county commissioners Tuesday afternoon. Besst and Sheriff Richie Skiles say the facility, which houses inmates underneath the county courthouse, is physically failing.
From sewer and plumbing issues, to a recently-failed state fire inspection, there are decades-worth of issues all coming to a head, Besst explained.
"Just various compounding issues on [the] cost of what it's gonna take just to bring our jail up to standards," he said.
The sheriff's office voluntarily had a fire inspection done by the Moscow Fire Department and said it unearthed major deficiencies in fire suppression equipment and fire egress.
There are no cost estimates on what it could take to fix one of the major fire standard failures: the width of cell doors.
Only one of those doors, Besst said, was wide enough under current Idaho codes. When two such doors were upgraded around 15 years ago, it cost $50,000. With half a dozen doors to repair at least, Sheriff Skiles said, costs could ramp up to $100,000 each. That's not factoring in potential engineering and architectural considerations.
"When it comes to fixing those doors, the doors are embedded into the walls and the ceilings of a basement that supports the upstairs," the sheriff said.
This all adds up to extra liability concerns for Latah County, the sheriff said.
Now the question is whether fixing all these issues are a good use of taxpayer dollars or whether Latah County should throw its pocketbook behind a new jail building.
Though that's not a cheaper alternative.
"Isn't it about $190,000 per bed?" Chief Deputy Besst confirmed with another sheriff's office employee in attendance Tuesday. "Yeah, do the math. We're looking at [a] 75-bed jail, that's just for a jail."
He roughly calculated it could cost $30-40 million for a new law enforcement center, not including the cost to buy the land.
The sheriff's office and commissioners agreed this is a common issue plaguing small jails across Idaho. Besst said of the handful of jails in District 2, where Latah County sits, only Nez Perce County has a facility that's up-to-date.
When Moscow's jail was built in 1973, it could house 50 inmates; now to comply with updated standards there are only 35 beds available. Sheriff Skiles said they average 22 inmates at a time.
The sheriff's office has already
There are only two options to fund a new jail: put a bond before taxpayers or push state legislators to renew a now-defunct local tax option Nez Perce County used to fund its 150-bed complex.
Though commissioner Tom Lamar lamented the lack of help as other counties have asked the legislature for assistance with their crumbling jail facilities.
"Nobody has provided any answers in Boise about a statewide solution," he said.
The sheriff’s office has already started looking ahead to shutting down, holding contract talks with a jail to Moscow’s south to house its inmates. The sheriff didn't elaborate on which facility that may be, but did say if the county chooses to repair the existing jail, its inmates would still need to be housed somewhere else temporarily.
Choosing to build a new jail would also mean a staff reduction, at least temporarily.
No decisions were made Tuesday, as the sheriff was tasked with compiling options and the cost estimates to present to commissioners as soon as possible.