Utah County wrangles with high jail costs

PROVO — It didn't make much sense to Utah County Commissioner Steve White: A man had served 157 days in the county jail for public intoxication.

The man had been arrested in Provo and charged with the class C misdemeanor while on his way to catch a bus to Grand Junction, Colo., where he planned to check into an alcohol treatment center.

The man had just picked up a check at the Social Security office and stopped by the state liquor store on his way out of town, White said.

That offended the judge, the commissioner said, and the man was then sentenced to 180 days in jail.

"Instead of the (police) officer taking the bottle and emptying it into the gutter and putting him on the bus, (the man) ended up spending six months in jail at a cost of nothing to Provo city," White said.

Total cost to the county: $15,000.

That was about a year ago, said White, who told the story this week during a meeting with criminal justice consultant Dave Bennett to discuss the implementation of a pretrial services program at the Utah County Jail.

The goal of the program is to manage jail population by speeding up the criminal justice process and making sure those who are taking up space in the jail are serving legitimate sentences and not just waiting around for a court date.

"Counties that don't put into place a jail management plan or don't establish programs such as pretrial services end up building new jail beds only to find they're filled in a short period of time," Bennett said. "Then they're back facing the same problem over and over again."

Construction is under way on two additional pods at the jail, which will add about 400 beds. The $22 million project is expected to be complete in November 2007.

That $55,000-per-bed cost is only the beginning, Bennett said. He estimates the county will spend about $4.5 million in the first year to staff and operate the new pods.

"When we talk about jail beds and the cost of building and operating those beds, the construction costs are really just a drop in the bucket," he said. "Capital costs are about 10 percent of the operating costs over the 30-year life of the facility."

Utah County's population increased by more than 75,000 from 2000 to 2005, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. As the county continues to grow, the jail population will follow, Bennett said. And if the county continues to build additions to the jail to house the inmates, the beds will keep filling up, he said.