Can’t we house inmates in tents like Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, Arizona, to save money?
A. The Maricopa tent housing requires additional staff for security, including pulling Deputies from the street, which is extremely expensive and reduces personnel to handle citizens’ calls for service. They have 6 jails, two of which were built after the tent city was opened. With our climate, tents would be impractical and staffing too expensive. In addition, the low risk offenders who are housed in Maricopa County’s tent city are the same type of inmates housed in our low cost, minimum security dormitory pods in the Kootenai County Jail and in the Work Release Center which is standard stick frame construction. In Kootenai County there is a shortage of housing for high risk inmates (which is unfortunately more expensive) who do not qualify for dormitory pods, nor would they qualify for a tent city.
