The Detention Center
Ada County Jail
- Operated byAda County Sheriff's Office
- Address7200 Barrister Drive, Boise, ID (Barrister Complex)
- Capacity (county site)1,224 inmates total, including a 130-bed Close Custody Unit and direct-supervision dorms (92-bed male, 56-bed female)
- Year built1977; expanded several times since
- Rated capacity (ISA jail directory, may not match current county figure)1,049 rated / 780 average daily population — Idaho Sheriffs' Association Directory of Idaho's Jails
- Revenue / contractsCounty budget page states the jail houses inmates for the Idaho Department of Correction and the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Sheriff's Office does contract policing for Eagle, Kuna, and Star
Source: Ada County Sheriff — Jail · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
7/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✓Who else it holds, and for how much
- ✓How to post bond
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1977
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byCounty (Ada County Sheriff's Office)
- Beds1,224 (county site); Idaho Sheriffs' Association jail directory separately lists a rated capacity of 1,049
Since then
- "The jail has been expanded several times since then" — no specific expansion dates or costs published on the county site
The Sheriff
Sheriff Matt Clifford
- Runs the jailYes — the Ada County Sheriff's Office operates the Ada County Jail
- How the office is filledElected; Idaho Code Title 20 Ch. 6 makes the sheriff jailer. Clifford is Ada County's 39th sheriff, with the office since 2000
- Office location7200 Barrister Drive, Boise, ID
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Ada County Sheriff — Sheriff Matt Clifford · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Idaho's District Court serves the judicial district (Ada is in the Fourth Judicial District, which also covers Boise, Elmore, and Valley counties) and Magistrate Court judges are appointed by a district magistrates commission and then face retention election. Both are state judicial officers, not county officials. Ada County's own judicial directory lists a large roster of judges without designating a single 'chief' or 'administrative' judge by name in the pages checked.
Fourth Judicial District Court — full judge roster published
- Judge Cynthia Yee-Wallace
- Judge Fafa Alidjani
- Judge Ransom Bailey
- Judge Peter Barton
- Judge Steven Hippler
- (and others — see source for full list)
Magistrate Court
- Not found — roster page did not render specific magistrate names via automated fetch
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-24
The County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
- The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
Notes on the record
- Idaho has no confirmed statutory adult jail inspection agency; the Idaho Sheriffs' Association runs a voluntary jail standards/inspection program whose reports are not public — ISA has denied records requests for them.
- The county's jail page separately lists a $25/day (up to $500) incarceration-cost-reimbursement fee required by Idaho Code 20-607; this is a statutory cost-recovery charge, not a published phone/commissary/video-visitation fee schedule, so 'fees' is marked no.
- Ada County Board of Commissioners — three members elected by district: Ryan Davidson (District 1), Rod W. Beck (District 2), Tom Dayley (District 3)
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Ada County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.
Names verified 2026-08-24 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered