S.L. County is unsure if selling jail is best plan

Salt Lake County Council members put the sale of the Oxbow Jail on hold Tuesday, saying they need five more weeks to decide if the sale is in the county's best interest, or if they should keep it and work out a shared-use deal with the Utah Department of Corrections.

"It's an asset of the Salt Lake County taxpayers," councilman Jim Bradley said in arguing against the sale. "It just seems to me that we ought to keep Oxbow, put that part of it to rest, and start talking to the state about how we can accommodate some kind of lease agreement."

Corrections Executive Director Mike Chabries wants to buy the now-closed 500-bed jail because of overcrowding problems at the Utah State Prison in Draper. Council members will tour the jail with Sheriff Aaron Kennard next Tuesday.

"When we're there, we ought to be thinking about what options we want to go through," council chairman Steve Harmsen said. "There are some that might be palatable to the council that might not be as palatable to the state."

In addition to an outright sale of Oxbow, some of those options could include sharing ownership, or leasing the jail to the state at a low cost with an agreement to designate 50 beds for jail inmates at no cost.

No matter the scenario, corrections officials would have preferred not to wait another five weeks for the county's decision. Prison beds for female inmates have been at or above capacity since October, and every available contract bed at county jails is also being used, DOC spokesman Jack Ford said.

Last month, the state Board of Pardons began the early release of nonviolent female offenders as a way to control overcrowding, Ford said. By June, prison officials expect to have a similar overcrowding problem with male inmates.

"Today, we had one female bed, and if we had been sent another (inmate) that would have been it," said Ford. "We can't really wait another month to make decisions about what to do."

Cache County is set to open its new jail in the next few days and may have 48 beds available for lease to the state, but it may want a long-term commitment from corrections. DOC wouldn't want to make that commitment until a final decision on Oxbow is made, Ford said. In the meantime, corrections will continue to work with the Utah Board of Pardons on early releases.

"But we've released everyone that we could," Ford said. "Now we're looking at having to let out more serious offenders."