The Canyon County Sheriff's Office says they would like to start moving female inmates into the temporary jail facility behind the courthouse in June.
The project, all in an effort to help ease overcrowding in the current jail, has been months in the making. The problem is, the Planning and Zoning Commission gave the Sheriff's Office the go-ahead to install a security fence around the facility--a fence with slats in it. Officials say the slats would prevent deputies from keeping a watchful eye on the inmates.
"The way a perimeter fence is designed is to be able to see through that to see if anything bad is going on behind there, so our request to the city is to not have those slats in that fence," said Daren Ward, the Canyon County Jail Commander.
The County Commissioners sent a letter to the Caldwell Planning and Zoning Commission Monday, stating the slats would create a security risk, and asked the city to hold a special meeting to approve a special-use permit to allow the fence without the slats.
