With the Adult Detention Center (ADC) bulging with inmates, Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder wants to add the long-shuttered Oxbow lockup to his accommodations.

It's a suite, by comparison, boasting spacious barracks undivided by cells. It has a kitchen once used for baking classes, idle sewing machines where inmates stitched jumpsuits and a handful of conference rooms for drug-treatment and vocational classes.

Only, these digs will cost Salt Lake County $5.5 million to open - if the first-year sheriff somehow can shake the cash from County Council members, who balked as recently as this summer at the idea of adding more jail beds.

Sure, they consented to reopening 128 bunks at the ADC in July when overcrowding forced the sheriff to free some nonviolent offenders. But they did it reluctantly, arguing bed space should remain scarce to encourage alternatives to incarceration.

Still, the Democratic sheriff is betting he can win at least five votes on the Republican-led nine-member council.

"On a scale of one to 10," Winder said, "we're at about an eight [as to the] likelihood of having it opened. I'm very heartened by the council's preliminary enthusiasm."

Realistically, that number probably should fall below five. The County Council remains reluctant to open a second jail.

"You build it and they will come," remarked Republican Councilman Marv Hendrickson, who said unmothballing Oxbow would take "a lot of discussion" to win his vote.

The minimum-security jail in South Salt Lake was shut down in 2000, shortly after the county opened the $135 million ADC nearby. The move saved the county the expense of operating two lockups.

And so Oxbow sits.

Water leaks have stained ceilings. SWAT teams have plastered windows with pepper balls during drills. And the kitchen has fallen into disrepair as the county jail cannibalized parts for its own cooking.

Only the laundry remains, which continues to spin out clean clothes for the current 2,000-capacity lockup.

The sheriff now sees opportunity in Oxbow - not simply a warehouse for more Salt Lake County offenders, but also as a tutoring ground for transitioning inmates back into the community.

"We're faced with a captive audience that we literally have to do something with," Winder said. "While they're here, let's begin to treat them."

So here is what the sheriff has in mind:

Open Oxbow for low-risk inmates. The county could turn the key for $5.5 million, earmarking $610,000 to replace computers, rekindle the kitchen and fix the infrastructure.

The county need not open all 564 beds, Winder says. Start with one pod for 184 minimum-security inmates that could move from the cramped ADC.

With the empty beds at the main jail, the sheriff could house 100 federal prisoners and generate about $2.7 million a year. Those dollars would help defray Oxbow's operating tab.

Finally, Winder says, implement drug-treatment and life-skills programs at Oxbow. Programs would focus on everything from personal hygiene to interviewing for a job. The goal would be to increase inmate participation in such programs by 50 percent - then see how many become repeat offenders.

Salt Lake County's Democratic Mayor Peter Corroon, a champion of alternatives to incarceration, maintains that adding more jail beds will do nothing to deter crime. But he likes the sheriff's idea, anyway.

"If [Oxbow] were to be used just to warehouse prisoners, I wouldn't be supportive of it," he said. "But if we use it for jail programming - therapeutic programming - it will be a benefit."

Opening Oxbow is anything but a sure thing. Some County Council members question whether the sheriff simply is playing politics to get more room for an inmate population that has surged as high as 2,200 at the ADC.

According to Winder, the county brig releases an average of 1,600 people a month - mostly minor offenders - because of overcrowding.

Question is: Will Oxbow solve the problem? The council's five Republicans aren't so sure.

Neither are some Democrats, including Jenny Wilson, who said she would weigh Oxbow against other priorities such as Human Services.

"Before I spend $5 million," said Republican Councilman Jeff Allen, "I want to make sure it is going to be effective."

"My gut feeling is that I would be surprised if the council did it," added GOP Councilman Michael Jensen. "But will we listen? Absolutely."

Winder finds supporters primarily among his fellow Democrats. Councilmen Randy Horiuchi and Jim Bradley see promise in the Oxbow initiative, particularly with its platter of treatment options that the sheriff notes could have a "significantly positive impact on our entire criminal-justice system."

"I'm in favor of looking at it," Horiuchi said. "The council is very, very committed to finding ways to cut down the ways [people] go to jail."

Jean Nielsen, director of the county's Human Services Department, said the sheriff's plan could do just that. Without a doubt, she said, inmates will be better prepared for life on the outside.

While the council remains divided, the Sheriff's Office appears to have more momentum for unlocking Oxbow than it has had for years. If nothing else, the council is willing to hear the sheriff's pitch.

"This is the first time people have been willing to consider it," Republican Councilman David Wilde said. "The county has an obligation to our citizens to take whatever reasonable steps we should to make sure we are protective of public safety. If we need more jail space for that purpose, then we ought to consider that. But is this really worth it? I'm trying to keep an open mind."

jstettler@sltrib.com