Where Will County Find Money for Oxbow?

Aug 14, 2008 by Jeff Robinson

(KCPW News) This week, the Salt Lake County Council was able to find $640,000 to prepare Oxbow Jail to re-open next year and relieve the overcrowded main county jail. Now the question is, where will the county come up with nearly $5 million in ongoing funding to operate Oxbow?

"We'll just have to look at some of the low-hanging fruit, look at the hiring freeze, look at no new programs, look at no new requests, limit the capital expenses that people are going to look for," said Council Chairman Michael Jensen.

Jensen says if the county can't come up with the money by limiting new expenses, it will have to cut current expenses. He doesn't believe a bond or tax increase would be necessary.

Jensen and other council members are disappointed that the state government backed off a deal to purchase Oxbow jail earlier this year. He says that would have gotten the county out of its current overcrowding predicament by moving state prisoners out of the county's facility.

"It would have been a win-win. It would have given the state the capacity they needed. It would have taken 300-plus prisoners per day out of our jail, so our overcrowding issues would have gone away, and then it would have saved the taxpayers of Salt Lake County somewhere between three and four million dollars per year on an on-going basis," Jensen said.

Jensen says the state only compensates Salt Lake County and other counties for half of what it costs to house state prisoners in county jails. He says the county will continue to press the state legislature to pay for more of that expense.

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