WALLACE –– The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office is hiring for a position they officially created last week after meeting with the county commissioners.  

The new jail medical officer was an idea that Sheriff Holly Lindsey and Undersheriff Lance Stutzke mentioned to the board a few weeks ago but were still ironing out a few of the details before formally requesting permission to open the job for applicants.  

According to Stutzke, the new position is an attempt to address several issues within the jail, primarily how the jail handles medical situations and adding an additional set of hands to help inside the facility.  

“We’re trying to solve a two-fold issue,” Stutzke said. “First, we’re having a hard time hiring in the jail and we’re trying to find help with the medical issues going on.”  

Stutzke did not elaborate on what he meant by medical issues, but he did say that jail standards and policy dictate that the jail has some health-trained staff. Currently, the jail features just four detention deputies but is supposed to have a staff of 12, including the jail captain.  

The new position would be a hybrid position combining a jail technician and a medical officer. Stutzke told the board they’re seeking applicants with three years of work experience and training as a nurse, EMT, or other related medical field.  

The job would include reviewing medical screening upon intake for inmates, conducting 14-day health appraisals, assisting the jail’s contracted medical provider, and managing medication distribution.  

According to Stutzke, the current system, which utilizes full-time detention deputies and fill-in patrol deputies results in, “too many hands in the medical stuff.” Adding this position helps relieve a burden on the current short-handed detention staff and helps simplify medical treatment in the jail.  

Stutzke told the board he spoke with the Idaho Counties Risk Management Program (ICRMP), which handles liability insurance across the county’s departments, and they agreed with his plan.  

“They think this is a really good idea,” Stutzke said. “It would definitely help us be more efficient in the way we handle medical. We’d have someone dedicated.”  

The jail tech side of the job allows a potential candidate to apply for the job without taking POST training, which restricts some of what they’re able to do in the jail, but does allow a person to handle duties like yard supervision from the watch tower, assist in getting inmates to and from court, and other simple duties within the jail. 

The position would come out of the jail’s detention staff budget, which has been largely unused due to the shortage of jail staff. The new position comes with a starting wage of $23.63 per hour, more than $2 more than the entry-level detention deputy makes.  

“I appreciate the proactive stance on this,” Commissioner Dave Dose said during the meeting.