BLACKFOOT — With the addition of a 73-bed wing that was completed last summer, the Bingham County Sheriff's office determined it would need at least 12 and as many as 16 additional detention deputies.
The Bingham County Jail added three new deputies last week after they completed the six-week training at the Idaho Peace Officers Standards and Training class in Meridian.
“We were at about 35 detention deputies prior to the new addition,” said Jordyn Nebeker, chief deputy for the Bingham County Sheriff's Office. “Now we are close to 50. Now we have to do the research to see if we need to increase it more.”
Nebeker said they have been hiring new detention deputies during the past two years, knowing as the project was coming close to completion. The three newest detention deputies are Brandon Richards, Mario Lizarraga and Easton Gardner. Nebeker said Gardner is no relation to Bingham County Sheriff Jeff Gardner.
The new wing brings the Bingham County Jail's capacity from 101 to 174 inmates.
“It has three new housing units that are open bunk, and it has a separate command center to operate the doors and monitor inmates,” Nebeker said. “It's a separate wing that is attached to the old facility, and it just made sense to have its own control center.”
Even so, Nebeker said each wing of the jail can monitor the other wing from its control center.
While it seems obvious that a larger jail with more inmates would need additional detention personnel, Nebeker says it goes beyond just monitoring inmates.
“We are now looking at a huge increase in the movement of inmates to and from the courthouse and to doctor appointments,” he said. “More inmates just means more moving parts.”
The growth of the jail was born out of need, but is adding opportunities as well. Nebeker said the Bingham County Jail doesn't currently need all the beds for its inmates, which means it can house inmates from other facilities that will pay the Bingham County Jail for the services.
“We are able to generate revenue through offering bed space to federal inmates and retaining inmates who have been sentenced to prison but their transfer to a state facility is delayed because of overcrowding,” Nebeker said. “All the staffing that has been added is currently covered by the revenue generated by the facility.”
Opportunities for the detention deputies includes the jail's new Contraband Emergency Response Team, which is a tactical unit that focuses on investigating suspected illegal substances and items in the jail. It's an area of specialized training for detention deputies.
“That opportunity has increased morale,” Nebeker said. “It definitely fills a need for your high performers to go above and beyond.”
It's just one of the reasons why he believes the retention of detention deputies will continue to increase. The position of a detention deputy was often seen as the path to being a patrol deputy, a training ground of sorts to help those who are new to law enforcement get some practical experience before hitting the streets.
Nebeker is seeing a transition in that attitude.
“They have a chance for advanced certification within detention, and we are seeing a trend where those who started in detention are happy with that, and they seem to like the work environment there,” he said. “We are seeing fewer who are in a hurry to move on because they are finding enough training and opportunity in detention.”