On Tuesday, the Salt Lake County Council agreed to a 90-day moratorium on its plan to close 150 jail beds at the Adult Detention Center in South Salt Lake. It comes just weeks after the council, at the request of Sheriff Aaron Kennard, postponed a March 1 closure of 64 beds for 30 days.

"We're not comfortable with continuing to close the jail cells without knowing where we're going," Mayor Peter Corroon told the council.

Corroon brokered the deal with Kennard in order to review the efficacy of sending more nonviolent inmates to outpatient drug treatment, including the county's newly opened Day Reporting Center. Kennard has repeatedly railed against the plan, arguing it could land dangerous offenders back on the street.

"We cannot release any more [criminals], because they don't meet the [release] criteria," Kennard told the council.

Unveiled late last year, the goal of Corroon and the council is to reduce the jail population from its current 1,870 inmates to 1,700. That was supposed to happen in stages beginning this spring.

Tuesday's action came as a last-minute item to the agenda, which left Councilman Michael Jensen uncomfortable.

"There's not a lot of issues that affect the lives of our citizens more than the jail," he argued. "The public would like to hear us debate."

Even so, the council unanimously agreed to the moratorium since Kennard faced an April 1 unit closure. They will debate the delay in more detail next week.

"This is the second time we've delayed," Councilman Randy Horiuchi lamented, noting the cost to continue to house the inmates will exceed $175,000. "At some point we're going to have to bite the bullet."

But Corroon insists the moratorium will give the county time to properly assess the alternatives to incarceration program.

The mayor also wants a "half-way back" program to provide sanctions on offenders who abscond from alternative programs, to study misdemeanor sentencing and to increase secure programming within the jail.

On the outside, Corroon hopes to develop community-work programs to allow inmates to work off fines, learn new job skills and position themselves for post-incarceration employment.

"This is one of the most important issues we are going to deal with all year," said Councilman Mark Crockett. "What we're talking about is the detail of how we work that out."

Still, Councilman Joe Hatch worries the county continues to capitulate to the sheriff.

"All sides are operating on brinkmanship," he said. "And that's just not good government."

djensen@sltrib.com