But for 46 nonviolent drug offenders, and eventually 240, life is about to begin anew in this Salt Lake City strip mall billed as an alternative to incarceration.
Called the Day Reporting Center, a scrubbed-clean office building for second chances opened Thursday at 145 E. 1300 South. Now ready for clients, it marks Salt Lake County's flagship attempt to shift nonthreatening jail inmates into substance-abuse treatment and stable jobs.
"It's like living at home with your parents," says Gary Dalton, director of criminal justice services.
He notes the inmates screened for the program will have three case managers along with therapists monitoring their transition back to the mainstream.
"We will call their job to make sure they're there," Dalton says. "And the service includes random drug testing."
The Day Reporting Center concept quickly won favor with Mayor Peter Corroon, who pushed for the $1 million budget. The county also will place $1.2 million toward drug treatment and resources to treat the mentally impaired.
Still, officials argue, the effort will be cheaper for taxpayers - at $10 a day compared with $72 a day to house the misdemeanants at the county jail. It also will free up cells at the Adult Detention Center for violent criminals.
Money also was set aside for 90-day transitional housing for the homeless.
"For the state of Utah, it's a big mental shift from 'lock 'em up' to 'treat them,' ” Corroon said, while admiring the new facility. "It's better for them, it's cheaper for society, and it's good for people with families."
Program Manager David Marshall agreed, but said the stakes are big for the center to succeed.
"You have to have viable options that the judges can support and the community can be comfortable with," he said. "Our hope is to provide individual life skills - anything to live a somewhat-more-normal life."
Inspirational slogans such as "one day at a time" and "today you can be anything you imagine" dot the white walls of the center.
Brent Leake, a case manager who also worked in drug court, concedes the clients cannot be monitored around the clock. But he expects most will be eager to rehabilitate their broken lives.
"This is going to fly," Leake smiled.
djensen@sltrib.com
