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Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams said recent criminal justice reforms should be rolled back if the alternative to jail isn't treatment, as intended.
The Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI), passed two years ago, aimed to save taxpayers money by imposing misdemeanor penalties instead of felonies on people in possession of drugs.
But without $100 million from the state's expected Medicaid extension, McAdams said Tuesday during his State of the County address, "thousands of people left state prison without treatment, jails have new offenders and there's no money for diversionary treatment."
"It is justice de-investment," said McAdams, who has called on the state to use $30 million it set aside in anticipation of a $70 million federal match. "Those people are on our streets, and our communities are less safe."
McAdams said he's had "incredibly productive" conversations with staff from Gov. Gary Herbert's office and state legislators, but that "if this dialogue fails, I see little recourse but to ask the Legislature to roll back the reforms, to halt the chaos on our streets."
County Council Chairman Steve DeBry said after McAdams' speech that he's not ready to support a rollback of the JRI until he can evaluate other options, but agreed that criminal justice reform is "the big, 800-pound gorilla in the room."
McAdams' comments come as state and local leaders decry the lawlessness around the emergency shelter at 210 S. Rio Grande St., in Salt Lake City. Misdemeanors go uncharged, law enforcement officials have said, because there is no space for inmates in the Salt Lake County Jail. The nearby Oxbow Jail would require a major investment to restore from mothball status, said Council Member Jenny Wilson on Tuesday.
Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, told The Tribune on Monday that he is looking for 300 beds in Tooele and Uintah counties, among others, that could house Salt Lake County prisoners.
McAdams said he'd take any help he can get.
His jail bed and Medicaid requests go hand-in-hand with a second installment of state funding sought by the county and Salt Lake City for a new approach to reducing the homeless population.
Under McAdams, now in his fifth year as mayor, the county has rethought homeless services while the city worked to find four sites for 150-bed shelters that would eventually replace the 1,100-bed Rio Grande shelter.
McAdams said Tuesday that affordable housing and homelessness have proven "a stubborn and complex social challenge."
Late last year, the county's "Pay for Success" programs reserved $11.5 million for homeless service providers who meet goals identified by the county. By housing 315 people characterized as persistently homeless and keeping 225 formerly incarcerated men from returning to jail — among other measures — the county hopes it can reduce demand for shelter beds to the extent that the Rio Grande shelter will close when the four smaller shelters come online.
Salt Lake County also partnered with the city in a round of law enforcement sweeps at the shelter designed to divert offenders to treatment, not jail. McAdams said the county has budgeted $650,000 for another round of what was dubbed Operation Diversion, but that after that "we will lose this alternative path for those arrested due to their addictions."
Wilson, who said McAdams' speech was "phenomenal," said the council is working to implement a more permanent version of Operation Diversion at a site other than the jail. In the meantime, Salt Lake City is expected to match the county's funding for the next installment of Operation Diversion.
McAdams also spoke at length Tuesday about the county's economic gains. It's ranked among the nation's top 41 counties for financial strength and received upgrades in two bond rating categories, McAdams said.
"It's been a busy four years," he said. "But I feel as though we're just hitting our stride."
Speaking next to a road sign that read "Opportunity Ahead," he pledged through his Global Cities Initiative to increase exports and foreign investment in the region, having completed an export plan in April and currently working toward a foreign investment road map.
McAdams said he recently had breakfast with AOL founder Steve Case near the current prison in Draper "for an on-the-ground look at those 740 prime acres and their economic potential."
But McAdams also spoke proudly about saying "no deal" to big business.
Specifically, the county rejected a highly incentivized deal to build a long-sought convention center hotel adjacent to the Salt Palace in downtown Salt Lake — though McAdams added that the county is currently negotiating a final term sheet with a developer and will have more information "in the near future."
And McAdams referred obliquely to a nixed $250 million incentive offer to Facebook that would have brought one of the world's largest data centers to West Jordan. After the city pulled its offer — undermined, its leaders felt, by a critical McAdams — Facebook went to New Mexico, instead.
"Economic development is a priority, but not at any cost, and not when it harms our school districts and delivers meager job growth," McAdams said Tuesday.
Other accomplishments and goals highlighted by McAdams include:
• His "Community Preservation Act" created five townships — Copperton, Emigration Canyon, Kearns, Magna and White City — to give a voice to those in the county's few remaining unincorporated areas. Millcreek, previously unincorporated, became a city.
• County voters approved $90 million bonds for parks and recreation that will go toward a dozen new projects and maintenance and upgrades for existing projects.
• A $13 million reboot for the county's computer-aided dispatch system is expected to save precious time for 911 callers when it comes online in 2018, McAdams said, and is currently 20 percent complete and on track.
• While the then-candidate Donald Trump built his presidential campaign upon a vow to secure American borders, McAdams' served as co-chairman of a "New Americans Task Force" to develop a "welcoming strategy" for the region's foreign-born residents. Tuesday, he invited five teens who fled Burma, Somalia and the Congo and are in the refugee foster care program.
• The county has partnered with University of Utah Health plans and Green & Healthy Homes Initiative to prevent asthma attacks through removal of environmental asthma triggers, home visits and behavioral education.
• Salt Lake County Animal Services had a live release rate in excess of 95 percent — the fourth consecutive year it's been above 90 percent.
Twitter: @matthew_piper