By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune
SALT LAKE CITY — County commissioners and sheriffs from across the state on Thursday urged the Prison Relocation Authority Committee to consider relying more on their jails as a way to alleviate the need for a new “mega” prison, claiming they can handle state inmates at a lower cost and with better outcomes.
In a presentation organized by the Utah Association of Counties and the Utah Sheriff’s Association, county representatives suggested a smaller, new maximum-security prison could be built to house the most serious offenders while leaving a majority of remaining offenders in or near the counties they’ll return to once they are released back into society. At present there is room to accommodate an additional 869 offenders at county jails that now contract to take state inmates, and several counties are willing and able to expand their facilities to take more inmates as the prison population grows in coming years, said Brent Gardner, Utah Association of Counties director.
County representatives argued a “decentralized” system would be a less expensive alternative than building an entire prison in a new location.
“We want to be part of the programming and get them back to our county as productive citizens,” said Weber County Commissioner Matthew Bell, a former sheriff’s lieutenant. “We are not sold on a big mega-prison where you keep them umpteen years and then they show up back on our doorsteps and are expected to be productive citizens.”
Full story: Counties: We can take more Utah prison inmates, save tax money