Corrections' purchase of jail looks like no-go

It doesn't look like the state will ease its inmate crowding problems by purchasing the Oxbow Jail.

The long-discussed exchange between the Department of Corrections and Salt Lake County has fizzled, legislative fiscal analyst Kevin Walthers said on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, although he couldn't say exactly why.

It may be as simple as a discrepancy between "what the buyer is willing to pay and what the seller is willing to sell for," Walthers told the executive appropriations committee.

The state had offered $7 million and legislators voted to bond for the purchase. The county seemed ready to sell and countered the state's offer with purchase proposals of $8.5 million or $10 million.

But since then the conversation has ground to a halt. Officials from both the corrections department and the state Office of Facilities and Construction Management said neither has heard from the county since the formal sale proposals were exchanged in February. Telephone calls seeking comment from Salt Lake County's deputy mayor Alan Dayton, who had been negotiating with the state, were not returned Tuesday. The County Council had been studying the issue over the past five weeks but as of Tuesday had not taken a vote on the issue.

The corrections department had hoped to turn the 500-bed mothballed jail, 3148 S. 1100 West, into a women's prison and halfway house where expanded programs and services could be offered to help inmates better rehabilitate. The number of female inmates rose 6.8 percent between 2002 and 2003 and shows no sign of slowing down, corrections executive director Mike Chabries has said. The prison has been at or above its female inmate capacity of 401 beds since last August.

In February, the state Board of Pardons and Parole began early releases of female inmates to ease overcrowding. The state also expects to be over capacity for male inmates by June.

Chabries saw Oxbow as a good solution because moving the women out of the Draper prison would open up beds for men. Also the expanded space for programming would better address the needs of women inmates, fewer than 100 of whom currently have access to substance-abuse treatment and life-skills programs.

"Oxbow provided us an opportunity to provide some treatment," Chabries said Tuesday. "We are not going to continuing (housing women) without some kind of treatment pieces. We don't have the resources to continue this revolving door that we have in the system."

Chabries will come back before executive appropria- tions next month with a new slate of proposals to replace the Oxbow solution.