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Idaho county jails and state prisons

Idaho has 44 counties. The sheriff runs the jail where the county has one. Ada, Canyon, Kootenai, and Bannock run the large buildings. A rural county may have a jail rated for a dozen people, or it may book into a neighbor. City police departments have holding rooms, not county jails. A published total of 36 jails is a directory snapshot, not a statute.

Idaho does not have a state jail board. The Idaho Sheriffs’ Association keeps voluntary standards and offers inspections. A failed inspection has no state penalty. County commissioners are required to visit the jail every three months, and the jail still has to pass fire and food-safety inspections. That is the oversight system. It is not a governor-appointed board of people who have been locked up.

Jails in Idaho hold people before trial and people serving a misdemeanor. A misdemeanor can mean up to a year in the county jail, and six months is the usual cap for a standard misdemeanor. A felony sentence goes to the Idaho Department of Correction. A federal sentence goes to the Bureau of Prisons.

How many county jails are there in Idaho?

Most of the 44 counties operate a jail. The ones that do not contract with a neighbor. When a jail holds someone for another county, for the state, or for the U.S. Marshals, it bills a contract rate. That rate is not a statewide fee. Growth in the Treasure Valley is what fills the Ada and Canyon jails. A full jail in the Panhandle or on the Montana line fills because the next bed is a long drive.

State prison is a separate map. The Department of Correction runs the prisons at the Kuna and Boise complex, Orofino, Cottonwood, Pocatello, and St. Anthony, and it runs community reentry centers for people near release. Five centers are operating: East Boise, Treasure Valley in Kuna, Nampa, Idaho Falls, and Twin Falls. A sixth, in Pocatello, is expected to open in late fall 2026. Reentry centers are not county jails. They hold minimum-custody people with a release date inside 18 months.

How many juvenile detention centers are there in Idaho?

County detention and state commitment are different systems. Counties and groups of counties run the juvenile detention centers that hold a youth before a hearing. Ada, Canyon, and the 3B center in Idaho Falls are the larger ones. The Five County detention center in St. Anthony closed on March 1, 2026, and those counties moved their youth to 3B. The Department of Juvenile Corrections runs the commitment side: Juvenile Correctional Centers in Lewiston, Nampa, and St. Anthony. Those three are for youth the court has committed, not for a routine pretrial hold.

A youth in a county detention center is usually waiting on court. A youth at Lewiston, Nampa, or the state center in St. Anthony has been committed. Both are secure, and both run school. Search the county of the arrest. The listing shows the detention center that county uses, and the state center only if the youth has been committed.

What the first days in an Idaho county jail are like

Booking is a queue: identity, prints, a medical screen, a search, property bagged, one call. The person has not been convicted. The pod still runs on counts. In January the holding cell is cold. Food is plain, the uniform does not fit, and sleep is broken. Withdrawal from alcohol or methamphetamine can start before the first appearance.

Deputies who apply the rules the same way to everyone run a quieter floor. Uneven enforcement is how contraband moves. Ada County can separate by risk. A jail rated for 11 people cannot, and a full jail there means a transfer.

Larger Idaho jails sell tablet time, video visits, and deposits through a vendor. A small jail may still be a phone-time account and a visit through glass. Those privileges can be shut off. Each county page on this site lists the jail phone, the vendor, and the way to send money for that sheriff’s office.