SPOKANE COUNTY-- It’s back to the drawing board for the new Spokane County Jail.
County officials had selected a site for the new jail, but now they say it’s too expensive and they’re looking for another one.
The jail was going to be another tower or an addition to the tower that is already there.
The county says if they move it somewhere else, they can get it for $76 million less.
Lt. Mike Sparber from the Spokane County Sheriff’s office says they want to be able to expand, and they don’t want the next generation to inherit their problems.
The problem is major overcrowding at the Spokane County Jail and its only getting worse.
The county loses its lease on the Geiger prison in 2014, and then about 400 inmates have to move but there’s nowhere for them to go.
Last year, the county was close to finding that home.
The plan was to add onto the existing jail.
When the plans came out, the county found building towers was too expensive.
If they built it low to the ground and spread out they would save $76 million.
The only problem, the current jail doesn’t have enough land.
Now the county is back to site selection, picking from ten different potential jail sites across the county, everywhere from Liberty Lake to Airway Heights.
The county plans to pay for the jail with a taxpayer bond, but it can’t even start that until it knows where the jail is going.
The current jail will still be here even if the new one is far away.
So to cut down on transportation, costs from jail to court, inmates will be held here until their trials are done, then live out at the new jail.
