By Peg McEntee
The Salt Lake Tribune
SALT LAKE CITY — Once again, real estate types are hot to move Utah State Prison at Point of the Mountain to... where, now?
Al Mansell, a real estate agent and former president of the Utah Senate, is leading the effort to reclaim 670 acres in Draper, where the prison has housed inmates since 1951. Since then, what once was a relatively remote site has transformed into Draper, a sizable city with a bit of a tax base problem.
Trouble is, it would cost roughly $500 million to move the prison somewhere else. But the land is worth, at best, about a fifth of that, and it could amount to a huge loss to the state’s coffers even if it’s filled with taxpaying homeowners and businesses.
But Tom Patterson, director of the Utah Department of Corrections, has other things to worry about.
First, the prison now houses about 4,500 inmates, and public safety is paramount on Patterson’s mind.
“It doesn’t make sense to move them all in one day, and with so much predictability,” he says.
Just south of the prison is a geothermal well that provides heat for several units, saving significantly on utility costs.
Next is where to build a new prison. Tooele County has been mentioned, but despite its enormous land mass, its population is growing fast -- 50 percent in the past decade, according to new census figures.
It’s also otherwise engaged with the Air Force’s Test and Training Range, the Dugway Proving Ground, a wilderness area and a national wildlife refuge.
There’s also the human side of things. Would prison staff be able to get there easily and efficiently, not to mention the 1,400 volunteers who help out with religious, educational and other needs? Inmates must be transported to courts and off-site medical care, much of it provided by University Hospital and its affiliates.
Perhaps most importantly, the inmates’ families have to be considered.
“They’re responsible for so many of the successes of our offenders -- the same support base they’d have on parole,” Patterson says. “You have to have the reversal of bad decisions, which takes place in prison, and kids are a good incentive. Hope comes from the family.”
On a practical level, there are so many questions that must be answered that it will take many years, a huge amount of money to make the move. Many of the buildings at Point of the Mountain are more than 50 years old, with some structural issues, “but it’s safe and we can make do,” Patterson says.
Mansell has said he and his associates want the matter to be resolved quickly. Rep. Greg Hughes, of Draper, who has tried to get the prison moved for years, wants it done right.
“Time?” Patterson asks. “I’ll let the economics take care of that. I’ve heard folks say we’re probably 10, 15 years away from having the economics make sense.”
He’s the one who’ll have to do the really hard work, and that makes him a man worth listening to.
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