skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

With Possible Prison Expansion Coming, How Can Idaho Slow Incarceration?

play audio
Play

Monday, July 16, 2018   

BOISE, Idaho – A $500-million-dollar prison expansion proposal is likely heading to the Idaho Legislature next year.

What else could the state do to curb its skyrocketing prison population?

One state lawmaker says the Gem State needs to address this issue before Idahoans end up behind bars. Rep. Melissa Wintrow of Boise was at the meeting when Idaho Board of Correctionmembers approved the expansion proposal. She says members recognized the state was stuck between a rock and a hard place and that this is a $500 million wake-up call.

"We've kind of kicked the can down the road so far with not going to the root causes of why people go to prison, and now we're left with putting our money in prisons instead of things like preschool, for example," she states.

Wintrow says investing in early education is crucial because literacy and education levels are directly linked to a person's chance of being incarcerated.

State officials estimate the number of incarcerated people in Idaho could rise to 10,000 by 2022. State lawmakers point out that Idaho has lower rates of crime than its neighboring states.

So does that mean the state's high incarceration rate is working? Wintrow says the dots don't connect.

She points out that the United States makes up 5 percent of the world's population and has 22 percent of the world's prison population.

And Idaho's per capita imprisonment rate is well above the national average.

"This is not a value of freedom and independence,” she states. “And we have to really drill down the numbers.

“Who are we incarcerating? The numbers of people of color and women incarcerated is on the rise. So we need to ask some better questions."

But Wintrow maintains the dots connect elsewhere. She notes a report earlier this year that found 7,000 science, technology, engineering and math jobs in Idaho went vacant in 2017.

"Rising prison population coupled with increasing number of good paying jobs going unfilled,” she points out. “We have to invest in education, we have to invest in health care if we want to produce enough skilled and healthy people to fill those jobs.

“When people don't have opportunity and they live in poverty, they're more likely to turn to drugs and ultimately crime."

Unless Gov. Butch Otter disapproves, the prison expansion proposal will be included in the state's budget, which goes before lawmakers during the 2019 session.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Iowa families can apply for up to $7,600 a year for private school costs. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

An ethics committee in the Republican-led Iowa House has dismissed a complaint filed by a group of community activists against a state lawmaker for hi…


play sound

Each spring, hundreds of thousands of California high school seniors have to figure out if they can afford to go to college in the fall - and two new …

Health and Wellness

play sound

A health care workforce shortage in New Hampshire is leaving Alzheimer's patients and their families with few options for treatment. Patients facing …


Data show Oak Ridge residents pay $2.67 million in taxes toward nuclear weapons programs. (fizkes/Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

A Knoxville-based environmental group is voicing concerns over what it sees as an increasing financial strain imposed on taxpayers by nuclear weapons …

Social Issues

play sound

This year's high school graduates will be eligible for 14,000 new scholarships offered through Opportunity Next Colorado, a $21 million investment …

The new law will apply only to future sales of Indiana farmland. (Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

A bipartisan law set to take effect this summer prohibits foreign adversaries from buying Hoosier farmland. The signature of Gov. Eric Holcomb was …

Social Issues

play sound

Today, people across Arizona are voting in the Presidential Preference Election, a chance for registered Democrats and Republicans to choose their …

Environment

play sound

Traffic deaths are trending higher in Minnesota this year after a decline the previous year. Groups pushing for safer roads are convinced a small …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021