After six different escapes involving eight different inmates at the Canyon County Jail tent facility, the jail has made some much-needed improvements to the facility.
They recently installed a metal roof lid over the interior kitchen area, a new secure exterior door leading from the kitchen to the outside, and a new buffer fence with barbed wire around most of the building.
"Without question, this is going to prohibit those occurrences because all of the areas that we have addressed are the places they were able to defeat," explained Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue.
Sheriff Donahue said he is very happy with the security upgrades, but still believes the county is not properly addressing the true jail needs.
"This is just a stop gap measure," said Sheriff Donahue. "We are in a critical situation and we are having to use facilities like this because we don't have a jail that will accommodate all of those who need to be in a jail. "
Sheriff Donahue said addressing the jail needs is going to cost money and there is no doubt that if nothing is done, it's going to cost more in terms of safety, security, and financially.
"We are now looking at putting Canyon County inmates out of state to house them through their adjudication process because there is nowhere to go. What does that cost to the taxpayer?"
