Last week, they turned to Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert for relief.

Representing seven counties that house state prisoners, the sheriffs complained Patterson overreacted when he ordered a statewide review of county jails and reshuffled nearly 300 state inmates to put first-degree felons back in a state prison.

Sheriffs had tried unsuccessfully to sound their concerns to Patterson, said Gary DeLand, executive director of the Utah Sheriffs' Association. So they asked to "get together with the lieutenant governor refereeing the whole thing and see if we could find middle ground."

Patterson has not backed down, saying he needed to make assurances to the public that violent criminals would not go on the loose.

"We're tying to deal with perception and reality," Patterson said. "Yes, it could be overkill in some areas. But really what we're trying to do is cinch up, and it's going to take some tweaking to address the concerns that the jails have."

Sheriffs criticized the first-degree felon rule as short-sighted, saying factors such as a prisoner's behavior behind bars and amount of time left to serve are equally important in assessing risk.

"A blanket policy of [pulling] first-degree felons is not a good idea," Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith said. "A lot of first-degree felons are not a threat."

Davis County sheriff's Chief Deputy Bob Yeaman said some of the 16 first-degree felons pulled from his jail were model inmates.

Yeaman and others also took issue with the jail inspections. In Yeaman's case, inspectors told him to raise fencing around the recreation yard even though it is covered and can't be scaled, he said.

Weber County Sheriff Brad Slater said the review seemed subjective. The main problem, he and others said, was bungled communication. DeLand said sheriffs felt Patterson allowed the perception to get out that all county jails were unsafe after the escapes of two convicted murderers from Daggett County jail in September.

But it appears Patterson has sounded a tone of reconciliation, sending a 1 1/2 -page letter to sheriffs acknowledging he should have communicated better with them and saying he "certainly never meant to insinuate that jails are not safe to house state inmates or that they are lacking in professionalism and expertise."

Patterson said he is also feeling the strains of the new policy, which will hamper his efforts to improve programming in state facilities now that more programs are needed in the county jails.

Patterson met again with about 20 sheriffs Thursday during the yearly meeting of the Association of Utah Counties. Davis County Sheriff Brad Cox characterized the mood of sheriffs coming out of the meeting as "cooperative but guarded."

Sheriffs have pointed to Patterson's lack of corrections experience - he took over in January after serving on the Utah Sentencing Commission - as one source of the strife.

"He's been put into a really hard position, really not knowing a whole lot about corrections and trying to get up to speed," said Smith, the Washington County sheriff. "You throw in a couple of escapes, and it puts a lot of pressure on him."

Lt. Gov. Herbert said tensions calmed following his meeting, and he planned to get sheriffs back together with Patterson next month.

''I said, 'Hey, nobody should take offense; we're all in this together,' '' Herbert said. "We're tying to make sure the streets are kept safe from the bad people. This is not us versus them, this is not good guys versus bad guys."

Asked if he thought the first-degree felony policy was set in stone now that the inmates have been pulled from the jails, Herbert said:

"They could be moved back."

rrizzo@sltrib.com

Escapes by inmates this year

* On June 25, white supremacist Curtis Allgier, held on a parole violation, fatally shot corrections officer Stephen Anderson and ran to freedom during a hospital visit at the University of Utah. He was captured hours later after a high-speed police chase that ended at an Arby's restaurant.

* On Aug. 10, killer Tam Nguyen, a state inmate housed at the Garfield County jail, enjoyed more than eight hours of freedom after fleeing the facility in the luggage compartment of a school bus.

* On Sept. 23, murderers Danny Martin Gallegos and Juan Carlos Diaz-Arevalo, both state inmates, slipped through an unlocked back door and escaped from the Daggett County jail. They were captured in Wyoming six days later.

* On Oct. 28, state inmate Joshua Brian Whallon, a convicted rapist and kidnapper, scaled a 12-foot fence at the Beaver County jail and was recaptured the same day.