Re-entry facility heads for advisory vote in Kootenai County

Another non-binding advisory vote has found its way to the May 19 ballot.

Pushed by Commissioner Bill Brooks, the question will ask Kootenai County residents whether they support a proposed prison re-entry facility in North Idaho.

Re-entry centers are run by the Idaho Department of Correction and provide counseling, job opportunities, daily drug testing, and a softer re-entry into society intended to reduce the chance for re-offending.

The IDOC announced last summer its consideration of Kootenai County as a potential location for a 130-bed re-entry center for parolees and probationers who are already living in North Idaho and offenders who would return to the area following incarceration.

Currently, IDOC operates four facilities in southern Idaho and is building another one in Twin Falls. Inmates from the northern portion of the state do not have a facility to help reintegrate them into society after serving a felony prison sentence.

Brooks said the advisory vote is an appropriate platform for the public to communicate about the proposed re-entry center.

“I think people would welcome the opportunity to express their opinion on something that really will make a difference,” Brooks said.

Commissioner Leslie Duncan expressed concern that the additional advisory question could push the ballot to two pages, significantly increasing the cost to taxpayers, and suggested including it on the November ballot instead.

Brooks felt the vote should occur as soon as possible, expressing his opposition to the proposed re-entry center. He stated that the recidivism rate for participants in re-entry centers in the state is 20%.

“If anybody in this county is raped, robbed, or murdered by someone coming out of that prison release center and I played any part in promoting that and I didn’t try to stop it, I’d take it very personally,” Brooks said.

The recidivism rate in Idaho for felons released directly from prison is about 35% and the rate for offenders who were imprisoned for parole violations average about 3% higher. Idaho has one of the lowest crime rates in the country but one of the highest incarceration rates. A large portion of those who are incarcerated are repeat offenders, according to the IDOC.

At the request of the Board of County Commissioners, the county’s planning and zoning commission will meet this week to begin drafting an amendment to the county’s land use code to establish parameters specific to re-entry centers.

Brooks fears the planning and zoning commission’s amendment will serve as a roadmap for the re-entry center. The commissioner voted against the request.

The planning and zoning commission’s process includes multiple opportunities for the public to express its concern or support for the re-entry center. Once the planning commission has finished drafting a proposed amendment, a public hearing will be scheduled. The planning commission will then make a recommendation to the BOCC, which will hold its own public hearing.

While not opposed to an advisory vote, Commissioners Chris Fillios and Duncan felt the public may have a more comprehensive level of participation in the decision-making process through public hearings.

“Here’s the problem with this vote — and to be clear I am dead set against [the re-entry center],” candidate for Kootenai County Sheriff John Grimm said. “We, meaning the people against it, don’t have the money to adequately educate the public to the dangers of this. We do have the time and ability to educate the commissioners. We elected you to make this decision, to make these types of decisions for us.”

Fillios articulated that regardless of whether anyone is for or against the re-entry center, the commissioners need a set of criteria against which to weigh their decision.

“If we get a petition that comes before us — let’s call it the prison release center — we do not have a set of criteria to evaluate that specific request,” Fillios said. “In our land use code we don’t have anything that addresses prison release.”

Fillios painted a hypothetical scenario in which the re-entry center proposal is brought before the commissioners. If they vote it down, the state could sue the county. In court, the county could be found capricious for rejecting the prison release center without any criteria to measure that decision.

“I dare Gov. Little to sue the people of Kootenai County through its commissioners for saying no, we don’t want something,” Brooks said. “IDOC Director Tewalt said, if you don’t want it here, we won’t have it here. I don’t know a clearer way to say we don’t want it here, or yes we do want it here, than a yes or no vote on the May 19th ballot.”

An advisory vote, by law, is nonbinding.

“In the conditional use process the weight of the citizens trumps the checking off of the boxes,” Duncan said.