Overcrowding.

That was the rallying cry that prompted Salt Lake County to reopen the long-mothballed Oxbow jail.

Empty beds.

That's what Sheriff Jim Winder now must explain as the Democratic lawman fills up the second jail, only to clear out two units and leave more than 100 beds empty at the main lockup.

"I certainly hope we didn't open Oxbow to create capacity in our system that, maybe, we don't need," said County Councilman Max Burdick, a Republican who supported unlatching Oxbow.

Some county officials now wonder whether the jail squeeze was really as severe as Winder portrayed it -- particularly when he has sent 184 inmates to Oxbow, only to leave 120 bunks vacant at the nearby Adult Detention Center (ADC) in South Salt Lake.

Winder insists no shell game is going on at the county jail. Yes, those beds are empty. But it's not because the Sheriff's Office was overstating a crunch in its corrections system that once forced the county to absolve the sentences of some offenders, including low-level felons.

Rather, Winder says, he doesn't have money to fill those beds -- not when the county has been so battered by the recession that his office has slashed $5.7 million to balance the 2010 budget.

"It boils down to dollars," the sheriff said. "We cannot spend more money than we have."

The county unshuttered the low-security Oxbow last summer, hoping to relieve the population pressure on the ADC and provide a more therapeutic setting for the lowest-level offenders. Those transfers left the county with a pair of empty units at the ADC.

Even without those two units, the county still has room for 64 more inmates than it had before. And that, Winder argues, has resulted in a noticeable decline in the number of early releases.

Still, the vacancies have left some council members asking whether the county could have made due for another year without opening another lockup. After all, it's a costly addition to the corrections system at a time when county coffers are bleeding.

The county is expected to spend about $5 million a year to operate a 184-bed wing at Oxbow.

"Are we really being as efficient as we can be?" Republican Councilman David Wilde asked. "We would probably be better off overall by making sure that we have one jail totally filled before we talk about going over and filling a new jail."

That's nonsense, according to Democratic Councilman Joe Hatch, who compared corrections to an electrical grid. You don't build enough power plants to handle an average day, he said. You plan for your peak.

The jail may have empty beds now, Hatch said, but the true test of that capacity will come during the summer crunch.

Times undoubtedly are tough for Utah's most populous county, where tax revenues have slumped so severely that Mayor Peter Corroon has proposed a 2010 budget that shrinks spending by more than $140 million. It's a painful paring that could lead to not only Sunday shutdowns of eight recreation centers and early closures of some swimming pools, but also a $13.4 million property tax hike and an $11 million fee increase in the unincorporated area for police protection.

The sheriff's budget, including Oxbow, is expected to grow to $93 million in 2010, up from $91.7 million this year -- a 1.4 percent spurt.

Democratic Councilman Jim Bradley doesn't see the ADC's empty beds as a problem.

"Are we always supposed to be programming so that we have only one bed available?" he asked. "The fact that we have beds available is a good thing so we don't have to look at opening up a new pod."

Besides, Bradley added, Oxbow was meant to serve a different purpose than the ADC. Unlike the higher-security digs at the main jail, Oxbow was pegged as a rehab campus that would centralize drug treatment, life-skills training and re-entry programs. Some inmates, he said, may be better served there.

The sheriff described the ADC's extra capacity as "temporary" and said his office will consider reopening those bunks as funding becomes available.

Show him the money, and he'll show council members filled beds.

jstettler@sltrib.com