As the corrections/court services chief deputy in charge of the old Metro Jail and Oxbow Jail, I was tasked with the responsibility of opening and staffing the new Adult Detention Center (or ADC as the current new jail is known) and preparing for the move from the old to the new.
The chief deputy in charge of designing and building the ADC also designed and built the Oxbow Jail. At the time Oxbow was built, it was designed to support, primarily in laundry services, a new jail that we knew had to be built some time in the future. In addition it was designed for inmate programs, and several operated quite successfully there.
Oxbow should have stayed open. Think about it. Close a relatively new jail? Not smart.
Staffing the new ADC was a significant issue. Jails are personnel-intensive.
I quickly learned that the county commissioners at the time didn't fully recognize the staffing impact when the ADC was authorized. Nonetheless, the new jail couldn't be avoided. It had to be built to satisfy the courts and address the population growth and the crime that comes with it.
To prepare for the move and address the staffing issues, former Sheriff Aaron Kennard and I created a transition team staffed by very capable, experienced sergeants and commanded by an outstanding lieutenant (currently the corrections chief deputy). Every proposed position, both sworn and civilian, was thoroughly examined to determine its necessity. We recognized that the ADC could not be staffed completely in the beginning. Nor was it necessary. The two jails operated as parts of an effective jail system.
After the ADC was opened and functioning, I transferred to another assignment and after a time retired. Then came the decision to close Oxbow. Inmate programs were shut down or transferred to the ADC. In my judgment, that was a series of poor decisions. Oxbow was not an old, dilapidated jail in need of replacement. It was part of a jail system that was changing the way prisoners were managed.
Consider for a moment. All of the prisoners from the overcrowded old Metro Jail were moved to the ADC. Then Oxbow was closed and those prisoners moved to the ADC. Then everyone wondered why the ADC was full. The ADC was built to accept the projected increase in prisoners, not to close Oxbow.
Had that not happened and had Oxbow continued to function as part of the unit concept in a jail system, all of the alternatives to incarceration - most of which were already in place or under consideration - could have been implemented and grown far more effectively than they have been.
Inmate programs reduce recidivism. Alternatives to incarceration allow jails to manage a certain class of inmate effectively and economically. Moving them from Oxbow, designed for such programs, to the ADC, not intended for them, was a costly mistake.
Those in charge and responsible who think that we will not need more jail beds as our population continues to grow don't live in the real world nor do they serve the best interests of our citizens.
Over the years, the overcrowding issue has been studied time and again. We shouldn't waste more money on another study of the criminal justice system.
Those who work in the system know the answers. There are only three parts that can really affect the system: the cops, the jail, the judges.
The cops can quit taking criminals to jail. (They already cite and release as many as they can. But there are still those who just need to go to jail.) The jail can refuse to accept prisoners. (That takes the power of arrest away from the police officers. The criminal element figures that one out in a heartbeat.)
Or the jail can release the prisoner right after an officer books him or her as Sheriff Jim Winder has been forced to do recently. (The criminal element has figured that out too.) The judges will do what they do.
The answer is obvious. The answer is costly, more so than it should be because of the mistake of closing Oxbow. The answer is open Oxbow as the part of a system it was intended to be.
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* DEAN CARR retired from the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office after serving for 35 years. He is currently a bureau chief with the Summit County Sheriff's Office. He can be contacted at deancarr@q.com.
