COEUR d'ALENE - Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger backs a proposal for a privately built and owned jail that would be leased and operated by the county.

Rocky Mountain Corrections, based in Ketchum, Idaho, pitched the proposal to build the jail to suit the county's needs. Moving to a new jail is at least two years out, if it happens at all, Wolfinger said.

"I do like the proposal," Wolfinger said after a meeting Wednesday with the county commissioners. "More importantly, the jail staff likes the proposal. They're the ones who will have to work in (the jail) and make it work."

Wolfinger said a jail with 625 beds would meet the county's needs. He said the beds would cost the county $23.50 each per day to lease.

The current jail on Government Way has 327 beds.

A site hasn't been selected or purchased by Rocky Mountain. The jail will have to be close to the courts and to the law enforcement agencies.

The current jail doesn't meet the county's needs, as many overflow inmates need to be transported to other jails in the region to be housed, and that has been expensive. That also creates a lot of liability in transportation, Wolfinger said.

"We have 35 to 50 inmates housed out-of-county at any given time," he said. "As our inmate population continues to grow overall, we're not fixing the problem."

With a new facility of 625 beds, the county would have space to lease out unused beds to generate some revenue, at least until the county requires them, Wolfinger said.

Wolfinger said the new facility's design would be more efficient handling inmates and allow for reduced manpower costs, with a net reduction of nine staff positions.

Commissioner Dan Green said it looks like moving to a new leased jail facility would cost the county about what it pays now to house inmates.

"I'm not going to jump on a sword and say that this is a moneymaker, but it's not far from being - from the 30,000- or maybe the 20,000-foot level - a break-even," Green said in the meeting with Wolfinger.

What's not clear is what to do with the current jail if the county no longer housed inmates there, Green said.

The county has to have a back-up plan in place for prisoner housing in case the county has to cancel its lease on a new facility.

So bulldozing the current jail building isn't an option. The building will have to be maintained, though parts of it may be leased out as long as modifications are not major.