BOISE - Crowded jails continue to be an issue at the state and local levels, posing a strain for those who run and manage them.
Ada County Sheriff Steve Bartlett says his staff is "overworked, understaffed and overstressed."
That's why his office is requesting a $5 million budget increase. If that number seems high, it is.
And the sheriff's office agrees, but they say those funds are necessary and long overdue.
Overcrowded jails cells, a lack of medical resources and not enough jail staff. Those are just some of the problems the Ada County Sheriff's Office has been dealing with for years. Now, they're asking for more funding to fix those problems.
"This year is one of our heaviest lifts of our budget requests in a number of years and it's mostly due to our population increase here in Ada County,” said Bartlett. “We've seen a dramatic increase in the number of people moving into the Treasure Valley, and specifically Ada County, and so for a number of years we've been playing catch up on that."
Right now, the initial budget for 2019 is about $67 million. But the sheriff's office is requesting more than $72 million from the Ada County Board of Commissioners.
That's about $5 million more than the current budget and would include adding 39 new employees.
"Nine of them will go to our nursing staff, but the bulk of those positions will go to our detention facility and to our transport unit that moves inmates around Ada County, both back and forth from our jail to our courthouse, and around town to medical appointments and throughout our community,” said Bartlett.
The additional staff would also address the growing number of inmates. On any given day, the sheriff’s office says the main jail facility is at or near full capacity.
In fact, just last month, the jail housed more than 1,100 inmates -- a record high.
KTVB saw those conditions while we were at the facility today.
In the jail dorm, we're told there is one deputy for every 100 inmates.
"My job is to let the commissioners know what the needs are of our community and the sheriff’s office," said Bartlett.
Commissioners are deliberating all this week and the final decision on that budget increase may not happen until July.