Utah’s governor and Legislature knew one thing – the state prison in Draper was going to move. Mostly because it is smack-dab in the middle of prime, real estate for the soon-to-be bustling new epicenter of tech and research in Utah. (No mind the fact that current transportation and infrastructure can’t support such growth.)
But that’s all they knew. The prison was going to move.
They had a difficult time agreeing on where to move it.
And now, they are having an even more difficult time determining what it will cost.
When plans were made to move the prison, the Prison Relocation Commission estimated the project would cost $860 million. Only a few individuals were privy to that number, though. Instead of using that estimated cost, officials told Administrative Services to build the prison for $650 million. But no one knows where that number came from, as the commission originally told the public the prison would cost $550 million.
Senator Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, co-chair of the Prison Relocation Commission, said the cost of the new prison is “a moving target.” Stevenson said the $860 million estimated cost came from a comparison of prison costs across the country, and that “we knew we could do it for less here.”
But costs keep escalating, partly due to the fact that the site the Legislature selected, west of the airport, needed roads and utilities and even backfill support so the land could hold the building.
It seems there would have been an easier place to build.
Utah’s Corrections Department has projected it will need a structure with at least 4,000 beds by 2022. And 4,000 was the number the commission was tasked to supply. But Tani Downing, Executive Director of Administrative Services, says even $650 million will only build 3,600 beds. And that’s before market bids.
To his credit, Paul Edwards, spokesman for Gov. Gary Herbert, promises that the administration will disclose any future changes to the prison’s construction budget or scope. But it’s difficult to disclose a change when no one knows where we started.
In essence, we are now building a new prison with 3,600 beds when we need 4,000. It will have less space for inmate education and laundry. And it will cost a lot more than originally promised – costs now sit at $692 million.
“And that’s still an estimate,” Downing cautioned.
Utah lawmakers, and taxpayers, should expect a much more precise, and transparent, estimate before we carry this expensive project any further.
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