A new fiscal policy analysis has found that Idaho lawmakers steered significantly more money toward incarceration infrastructure during the 2026 legislative session than toward programs aimed at reducing the prison population in the first place — a pattern the report’s author describes as prioritizing prisons over prevention.

The Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy released the report, authored by senior policy coordinator Craig Petersen, examining how the legislature allocated resources across corrections, public defense, and treatment courts for fiscal years 2027 and beyond.

Corrections Spending Surges

The Idaho Department of Correction received a $33.2 million budget increase for fiscal year 2027 — a 9.4 percent jump from the prior year. IDOC Director Bree Derrick said the funding will support more than 1,000 new beds across several facilities statewide.

Projects currently underway or approved include a 100-bed community re-entry center in Pocatello slated for completion in November, with occupancy targeted for January. A new 112-bed unit at the Orofino prison is expected to begin construction in August 2027. The Idaho State Correctional Institute is adding a 280-bed housing unit, with construction set to wrap in April.

IDOC is also retrofitting the bottom floor of one existing facility to serve incarcerated individuals with elevated medical needs. “The bottom floor of that building is being purpose built for an older and more infirm population that will have medical devices and equipment with them,” Derrick told the Idaho Press.

A new women’s prison, approved with $7.5 million in funding from Canyon County Commissioners in September 2025, will have 560 beds and is expected to be completed by December 2027.

The expansion comes amid persistent crowding. As of the fiscal year 2025 report, 1,232 IDOC inmates were being housed in county jails and an additional 588 were held in out-of-state facilities — a significant overflow that administrators have cited in justifying the capital buildout.

Derrick noted that fitting out the new facilities will require separate budget requests. “We’re doing the build out right now, but the actually outfitting and operationalizing those facilities is a separate appropriation ask,” she said, as reported by the Idaho Press.

Public Defender Office Takes Cuts

While corrections dollars grew, the Office of State Public Defender saw its budget trimmed. Lawmakers reduced its appropriation by $1.7 million from fiscal year 2026 to 2027, with an additional $2.2 million reduction projected for the following fiscal year.

The timing is notable. The Office of State Public Defender formally opened July 1, 2024, and fully consolidated Idaho’s county-level public defense systems on October 1, 2025 — a reform aimed at addressing longstanding concerns about uneven access to legal representation across the state. In its first nine months of operation, the office was assigned more than 39,000 cases.

The ICFP report characterizes the budget cuts as inconsistent with the state’s broader goals around justice reform, arguing that underfunding legal defense can contribute to downstream incarceration costs rather than reducing them.

Idaho’s Incarceration Rate Among Nation’s Highest

The backdrop to these budget decisions is a state incarceration rate that stands well above national norms. Idaho locked up residents at a rate of 490 per 100,000 as of 2023, ranking it fifth highest in the country. IDOC manages a workforce of approximately 2,000 employees, and the report noted that budget reductions of even 1 to 2 percent could trigger staff furloughs of at least five days.

The fiscal tensions exposed in the report reflect a debate playing out in many states: whether expanding prison capacity addresses a genuine infrastructure need or whether it diverts resources from treatment courts, diversion programs, and legal services that could reduce incarceration over time.

What Comes Next

With the legislature adjourned, the immediate focus shifts to implementation. IDOC’s facility construction timeline runs through late 2027, and the State Public Defender’s office will need to demonstrate it can manage its growing caseload under a tighter budget. Whether the spending balance shifts in the next legislative session will likely depend on how both agencies perform — and whether the capacity expansions ease the overflow of inmates currently housed in county jails and out-of-state facilities.

Idaho’s criminal justice spending choices will remain a point of scrutiny heading into the 2027 session, particularly as the new women’s prison and other capital projects come online and demand separate appropriations for staffing and operations.