Salt Lake County again tackles jail overcrowding

Salt Lake County has taken a significant step for relief of jail overcrowding in its hiring of a "criminal justice coordinator" this week.

"We have discovered that a reduction in crime rates does not result in a corresponding reduction in jail population," County Mayor Peter Corroon said. "(The hire) will help us find feasible ways to handle the criminal justice system and the county's needs in this respect."

Ronald Gordon, an attorney, comes to the county after three years as director of the state sentencing commission. He started his new job Wednesday.

Gordon's hiring is a follow-up to a study, done last spring by California consultant Alan Kalmanoff, which recommended various ways to relieve jail overcrowding.

Ever since it opened in January 2000, Salt Lake County's Adult Detention Facility has been at or near capacity. Kalmanoff noted that bookings have not significantly increased over the years, but in the get-tough atmosphere of the times, sentences have doubled on average since 1997.

Among inmates at the county jail, Kalmanoff said, two-thirds are not dangerous and need not be incarcerated. "The jail should only be for people we're afraid of, not mad at."

With the study, "Salt Lake County is taking some important measures to address growing incarceration rates," Gordon said. "I hope to be part of the solution."

Among other ways to reduce jail population, Kalmanoff said justice court judges should sentence people to the custody of the sheriff, who then would have the option to put them in a work program, house arrest or whatever else he deems appropriate.

When Kalmanoff presented his conclusions last May, various government officials, while supportive, immediately pointed out various problems in implementing the study, primarily intergovernmental and interjurisdictional cooperation.

When he was on the County Commission in 1991, Salt Lake County Councilman Randy Horiuchi observed, a similar study was done, recommending similar things. The result?

"Here we are, a dozen years later, fighting the same dragons, trying to solve the same problems," Horiuchi said. "What will it take to get our arms around this thing?"

A frustrated Horiuchi recommended appointing "a special guy who has supernatural powers like the Flash, who has power to go in like a wild man and change everything."