Jail study exposes rifts

Given conflicting agendas and turf battles between agencies, the road to criminal justice Utopia in Salt Lake County may be a long one.

A county-commissioned study released last week has been getting almost universal plaudits. Mayors, council members, sheriff, attorneys, media — pretty much the worst reaction you'll find from anyone is qualified approval, and most express great enthusiasm for it.

The study's primary purpose was to relieve overcrowding at the jail, but it addresses several other issues as well. Consultant and study author Alan Kalmanoff makes 60 recommendations for streamlining and improving the county's criminal justice system, calling for cooperation between jurisdictions and agencies to alleviate the jail crowding, provide appropriate punishment and — most significantly — save money in the criminal justice system.

But people being people — prone to jealousy, suspicion and pride — working together in that way may be difficult.

"You say we've got to do this on the basis of cooperation," County Council Chairman Steve Harmsen said at a presentation of the plan Tuesday. "I'm a little suspicious of cooperation."

"On rare occasions I agree with him," Democratic Councilman Randy Horiuchi said of Republican Harmsen, "and I agree with him in this."

Case in point: County Council members — who unanimously voted their approval of the study Tuesday — found themselves bickering about the plan's supposed political motivations and partisan agendas.

"It's an election year," Councilman Russell Skousen said. "Some people are making this political. . . . We all need to approach this with a degree of humility and see how we can improve things."

The study recommends that justice court judges sentence people to the custody of the sheriff, who then has the option to put them in jail, a work program, house arrest or whatever else he deems appropriate. But judges generally have opposed things like fixed-sentence guidelines and other limits on their discretion.

"There is turf here," Kalmanoff conceded.

That's only one of the many potential "sticky wickets" (Kalmanoff's term) proposed by the study. Like it or not, people in any situation tend to get territorial. Will the Legislature pass needed legislation? Will cities cooperate? Will police accept arrest restrictions?

Horiuchi observed that a similar study was done in 1991, when he was on the County Commission. Similar recommendations were made at that time. The result?