The head of the Idaho Department of Correction told state lawmakers Monday he wants to spend $112 million on a new prison for women.
IDOC Director Josh Tewalt told the House Judiciary Rules and Administration Committee every time he has to add more women to Idaho’s prison system; he doesn’t have anywhere to put them. So they end up pushing men out of minimum custody.
“On any given day, I have over 1,000 men who are classified as minimum custody that are sitting in medium custody beds,” said Tewalt.
So the Board of Correction is recommending Idaho build an 848-bed female prison. Tewalt says it would give IDOC the right beds at the right time for a lower cost.
“The reality is, minimum custody infrastructure, which happens to be the infrastructure we need, is about half the cost of secure infrastructure.”
The new prison would allow Tewalt to pull women out of two other facilities, turning those beds into spots for minimum security men.
IDOC has 7,200 people housed at nine prisons and four reentry centers in Idaho. Another 1,556 are held in county jails and private prisons.
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