Pressed by reporters, Huntsman said Tooele County seems to fit those requirements. The county has been mentioned before as a site for a new prison, he added.

Tooele County Commissioner Gene White said if a Huntsman administration decides on his county, he hopes it goes more smoothly than prison-relocating talks of the early 2000s.

Then, White recalled, Grantsville paid $100,000 to extend a water line to a site 12 miles from town. But the state ended up not contracting with a private firm to build a facility then, and the town sued the state to recover the cost.

"It was quite a fiasco there for a while," White said. In the end, "it turned out positive for us because that's where the Wal-Mart distribution center went in since we already had the water line."

A new prison, while costly, would provide any number of win-win situations for the state, Huntsman said, including "economic development for a rural part of the state."

For years, state correction officials have vacillated between more buildings at the Draper site or construction in rural areas.

The current satellite prison in Gunnison has helped employment in the town of 2,300 people. But it's not near any population centers, so it's difficult for inmates' families to visit.

A special legislative session earlier this month appropriated $3.7 million to build a new fence around an existing building and make other improvements at the Draper site to better house male and female inmates.

"I support that expenditure," Huntsman said.

But over the next several years, he said, $75 million must be spent at Draper for a new main kitchen and to make other improvements to the "crumbling" structures, some built in the early 1950s when the old territorial prison was moved from Sugarhouse Park on 2100 South.

Why make that kind of expenditure, Huntsman asked, when the Draper prison will just have to be replaced soon anyway?

Ford said he's never heard of the $75 million figure. "We do need a new kitchen, which is estimated to cost between $4 million and $5 million. We're investigating contracting out food services to the private sector."

Utah's inmate population actually dropped during the mid-1990s. But inmate numbers are on the rise again, especially the population of female inmates.

By October the prison could reach its maximum management numbers, 3,500 or so. And in the near future the institution could start "early release" of prisoners, as it did in the 1980s before more prison space was built at the Point of the Mountain and satellite facilities. "But we're not near early release now — we still have space in county jails" where the state pays to house state inmates.

"We need a 50-year plan for state corrections," Huntsman said. Part of that plan is how to deal with addicted inmates in jail for drug-related offenses.

"Prison should not be used as high-priced detox centers. And part of the plan is better compensation and benefits" for correctional officers, he added.

---

Contributing: Doug Smeath; E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com