Population changes and contract talks drive higher requested medical and placement funding for Idaho corrections

The Idaho Department of Correction told the Joint Finance Preparations Committee on Feb. 4 that supplemental budget requests in the county and out‑of‑state placement and medical services divisions are driven mainly by higher utilization and updated population projections.

Noah Peterson, the committee’s budget analyst, said population-driven adjustments accounted for several million dollars in supplemental requests for fiscal year 2025 and that updated projections increased the ongoing base request for fiscal year 2026. He said the county per‑diem rates in state code are set at $57.50 for stays of seven days or less and $77.50 for eight days or more; out‑of‑state per‑diems were cited at about $84.45 in the fiscal snapshot.

Peterson told lawmakers the medical services adjustment reflected higher utilization than the agency originally projected and said the department is negotiating a new medical contract with its current provider. He said the agency assumes, for its budgeting, a successful negotiation that would raise costs by about 10%; if the contract instead goes out to competitive bid, the agency projects a 30%–40% increase in cost.

Tewalt added context about county rates, saying the tiers are set in statute and were designed to encourage the state to pick up people from county jails more quickly, reducing county backlog. Committee members asked for further detail on per‑diem calculations and how rates are set; Peterson offered to provide additional information.

Peterson said per‑diem and placement costs can be volatile because short‑term changes in where people are housed can shift the averages materially. The legislative analyst and department officials recommended monitoring the contract negotiations and population projections as drivers of future costs.