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Salt Lake County May Go “Pay-for-Stay”

March 31st, 2009
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sheriff-jim-winderSalt Lake County UT Sheriff Jim Winder will pitch a pay-to-stay program that would require wrongdoers to pay a portion of their room and board while incarcerated.

“People who commit crimes ought to pay for them,”  Councilman Jim Bradley said.  So the County Council will consider a six-month pilot program that will charge inmates $40 a day to bunk at the 2,000-bed Adult Detention Center in South Salt Lake. That’s about half the actual cost, now pegged at $82 a day.  The policy would not apply to state and federal inmates. Nor would the jail pursue claims against “indigent” inmates.  “Are we going to offset the jail budget with this program? No,” Sheriff Winder said. “But in cases where people can pay, they should” …

It’s not much compared with the half-million dollars the jail in Logan spends on food or the $6.1 million needed for its overall operation. But it’s money “the taxpayer doesn’t have to pay,” said Capt. Kim Cheshire, commander of the Cache County Jail. The idea is hardly groundbreaking. Jails have imposed similar rules elsewhere in Utah, including in Cache County. There, officials likely will collect up to $100,000 this year from a jail population of about 310 inmates …

Yet Winder’s proposal could run into resistance in Salt Lake County, where some council members fear the policy would prove too burdensome for inmates already strapped financially. Bill dodgers wouldn’t have to serve more time for not paying, but they could face collections.  “My concern is that we will be sending people out the door with a bill that they cannot pay,” Councilwoman Jenny Wilson said. “These are people who are already down and out. It may just be too much.”

vericatrajkova Booking Fees, UT Salt Lake County, Utah

County To Re-Open Jail — Maybe

March 9th, 2009
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ut-oxbow-jailSouth Salt Lake has given Salt Lake County UT a green light to reopen Oxbow Jail — even as looming state budget cuts put the plan in jeopardy, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

On Thursday, the South Salt Lake Planning Commission unanimously approved a conditional-use permit that gives the county the city’s permission to open the mothballed facility … “There were several neighbors who spoke, and they were all in favor of it,” South Salt Lake Community Development Director Larry Gardner said Friday. “They feel like opening the jail will be good for driving away unwanted activity that’s occurring on their street right now.” Oxbow is scheduled to reopen this summer, relieving overcrowding at the nearby Adult Detention Center. But the Legislature is weighing whether to slash money paid to house state inmates in county jails. That could wipe out $2.7 million currently sent to Salt Lake County and shelve plans to unlock Oxbow.

vericatrajkova Economic Issues, Overcrowding, UT Salt Lake County, Utah

Issues With Utah’s Proposed Parole Center

October 6th, 2008
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Minor parole violators in Utah will have to bunk with serious criminals at the state prison for a while longer.

The [Utah] Department of Corrections wants to open a new 300-inmate Parole Violator Center near downtown Salt Lake City in April.  But not so fast.   Salt Lake City officials are criticizing the proposed location, and the Legislature just yanked nearly $6 million from the plan, in part due to snags in cooperating with the city. Corrections officials say the move would free up space at the prison and get minor parole violators treated and back with their jobs and families faster.

Cliff Butter, director of planning and research for Corrections, said a typical parole offender currently spends nine to 10 months behind bars on a typical violation, but with a new center offering intensive treatment, he said, they could be back on the streets in 45 to 60 days.     Corrections spokeswoman Angie Welling said the center would be a secure facility tailored to specific needs of offenders. Some would be on a work release program, some would have curfews allowing them to search for jobs in the day and some might constantly be locked inside the center.   “This would allow [parolees] a bit of a tuneup if their only problem is substance abuse or something minor,” Welling said …

[A]t its recent budget-trimming emergency session – which saw the Legislature pull back $11 million it had originally planned to give the Department of Corrections – lawmakers wiped away $5.733 million originally earmarked for the Parole Violator Center. That’s mainly because of the snag with Salt Lake City officials, who issued a six-month moratorium on halfway homes in August, meaning the center never could have opened on time anyway.     “Our intent was to have the facility a lot closer to being open at this point, and that hasn’t happened,” said Welling. “We had agreed [with CEC to build it] and were moving forward with the licensing process. The municipality did not like that” …

Officials launched the pre-emptive moratorium, lasting until February, so they could look at areas that might better suit the facility. The city currently issues permits on a case-by-case basis for halfway houses, but the city is used to seeing smaller buildings serving a dozen patients, not a 300-inmate secured prisonlike facility.  “Our existing ordinance never anticipated anything of this size. This is cutting-edge stuff,” said City Councilwoman Jill Remington-Love, adding that the proposed building felt like a prison.

Plenty more information on this at the Salt Lake Tribune.

vericatrajkova Community Corrections, Probation and Parole, UT Salt Lake County, Utah, Work Release

Daily Sweep 8/6

August 6th, 2008
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vericatrajkova Drug Treatment & Diversion, ICE, Immigration Issues / Illegal Aliens, MN Renville County, Overcrowding, Private Prisons, TX McLennan County, Thailand, UT Salt Lake County, VA Prince William County

Daily Sweep 080211

February 11th, 2008
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  • New Zealand Corrections Department finding GPS monitoring less valuable than they had hoped.
  • The eight candidates for Dallas County TX Sheriff each have their own plans for dealing with the jail’s fifth failed inspection in a row.
  • Officials in Salt Lake County and Draper City have re-opened the question of moving the Utah State Prison out of town, not the DOC’s favourite idea.
  • The inmate population in England & Wales continues to balloon. The 82,000 offenders have filled the prisons to capacity even though a new prison was opened just last week.
  • The new Receiver in charge of California’s inmate medical system has closed Bob Sillen’s former office in San Jose and moved the operation to Sacramento.

vericatrajkova California, Electronic Monitoring, England & Wales, Inmate Health, New Zealand, Overcrowding, TX Dallas County, UT Salt Lake County, Utah