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The Special Housing Unit is expected to become fully operational by early February. | Kaitlyn Hart and Jordan Wood, EastIdahoNews.com
IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com was one of the first to experience a tour of the new and improved Special Housing Unit at the Bonneville County Jail and learn how much the conditions are improving — both for both staff and inmates.
The Special Housing Unit, referred to as the “SHU,” is a newly built section of the jail that provides safe housing and resources for inmates struggling with medical and mental needs, as well as those who have developmental disabilities or who are suicidal and a danger to themselves or others.
“Back when the original jail was built, we only had 19 beds available for special housing. When it comes to inmates with special needs, whether that be developmentally delayed, severe persistent mental illness, things like that, we just don’t have enough space,” says Lieutenant Brian Johnson with the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office. “We designed this part of the building to help house those people properly and give them an opportunity to not just be stuck in a holding cell, and hopefully we can take care of them better.”
First on the list of new facilities is the medical office, which includes two counseling rooms for inmates requiring mental health intervention, an office space for the medical staff, and an exam room for medical intervention that inmates may need.
The exam room in the new SHU. | Jordan Wood, EastIdahoNews.com “When you have inmates come into the jail, we’re in charge of them, and we’re in charge of a human being,” says Sergeant Bryan Lovell, Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office spokesman. “We’re trying to keep them safe from other people, and other people safe from them.”
The unit also includes eight new quads, which contain 168 beds for new and existing inmates.
Johnson says the increase in space and addition of new beds are extremely helpful in addressing the overcrowding epidemic at many jails and prisons in eastern Idaho.
“We ran out of space in the current special housing unit within just a matter of a few years after opening the jail in 1998,” says Johnson. “As the community grows, the different types of mental health illnesses, the different types of drug induced things that we see in the jail, they just continue to rise.”
One of the new quads for inmates. | Jordan Wood, EastIdahoNews.com According to Lovell and Johnson, the growth in population in eastern Idaho has contributed significantly to the need for expanding jail space.
“We do the best we can. This is going to help us kind of be more versatile in placement, in classification, and keeping people safe,” says Lovell. “This definitely gives us the ability to adjust… not always can you just group a bunch of people into a room and everybody’s taken care of.”
Some of the new cells will also include specialty radar technology to help deputies and first responders monitor at-risk inmates’ movements, heart rates, and respirations.
Some of these cells will include radar technology. | Jordan Wood, EastIdahoNews.com “It’s a sensor that ties back into our control room for people that are either suicidal, or have some pretty severe mental health or medical issues,” says Johnson. “That just gives us one more layer of protection besides coming in and checking on them every 15 minutes.”
Inside the circle of quads is what deputies call the “treehouse,” a center tower where deputies and staff oversee the quads and monitor inmates.
“You have people watching everything and controlling doors and stuff up here,” says Lovell. “But it’s like everywhere else in the jail, (every) 30 minutes or less, someone is checking on inmates.”
The rest of the new unit includes huge improvements for jail deputies, and staff called the Staff Wellness Center, including a staff break room with food and drink available for purchase, women’s and men’s locker rooms and an exercise room.
According to Johnson, before the new unit, deputies commonly ate quick snacks on the job, as they didn’t have a place to sit down and eat a meal to decompress.
Johnson standing in front of what will be a new staff pantry. | Jordan Wood, EastIdahoNews.com “(Right now) we eat at the post. Wherever you’re at, you just grab what you can,” says Johnson. “And so now, we’ll have an area where we can get away from the rat race.”
The jail expects the new unit to be open and operational by the beginning of February.
Johnson says jail staff are excited to be able to better care for those who need help the most.
“It just gives us the option to better house the inmates,” says Johnson. “For the Staff Wellness Center, I think we’ll have a big improvement to our morale, being able to give them that space.”
Lovell notes that the Bonneville County Jail is looking to hire deputies and jail staff starting Jan 31, and into February.
Watch our tour of the new unit in the video player above. If you are interested, check out the requirements and testing dates here.
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