Kennard gets an ally on reopening Oxbow Jail
County Council's Crockett brings up holding-facility idea
During a tour of the Salt Lake County Metro Jail on Tuesday, Councilman Mark Crockett peppered the sheriff with questions about the possibility of reconfiguring the old jail into a minimum-security holding facility. The doors to the jail have been closed for three years, since the County Council slashed the facility's operating budget.
"I'm harping on them all the time, and someone is starting to listen," Kennard said after the tour. Three council members and their staff walked through maximum and minimum security units, as well as the jail's in-house treatment programs.
Kennard last summer asked the council to reopen a portion of Oxbow for a price tag of $1.6 million to keep the facility open for six months. At the time, Kennard said reopening one section of the jail would free up 184 beds at the overcrowded Salt Lake County Metro Jail.
The council turned him down and instead chose to focus on alternatives to incarceration like substance-abuse treatment programs, including the Day Reporting Center.
Since then, the council has ordered Kennard to cut jail beds. To date, 120 beds have been removed, with another round of closures looming.
Kennard said he supports the council's push to reduce the jail population by taking low-risk inmates out of the facility and into outpatient treatment programs. But the council's plan alone will not solve the county's jail overcrowding problem, he said.
Crockett agreed and said the council should look at a variety of options. "I don't know that there is much interest to keep paying for more of the same old thing," Crockett said.
"If we could refigure something with alternative programs, mental health programs," he added, "there might be a lot of interest."
Council Chairman Cort Ashton is also warming up to the idea of reopening the doors to the Oxbow Jail.
"What we've been doing isn't working," Ashton said. "I'm all for innovative progressive kinds of things."
The Oxbow Jail also could provide a home for the Correction Addictions Treatments Systems (CATS) program, Ashton said. Kennard has threatened to close the program because he says he doesn't have enough space at the jail.
Ashton said he'd also consider selling the old jail, but only for top-market value. The state wants to purchase the jail but has offered less than half what the property is worth, Kennard said.
"If we can get fair market value on the dollar, great," Ashton said. "If not, we'll keep it in our toolbox and possibly use it later."
E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com
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Pat | Feb. 29, 2008 at 8:00 a.m.
