Salt Lake County Jail

SALT LAKE CITY — During debate about whether to sign a resolution on jail reimbursement with Weber, Davis and Utah counties, Salt Lake County Councilman Randy Horiuchi boiled the issue down to a single question.

“Are we willing to raise taxes on our residents to take care of state problems?” Horiuchi asked.

With that, the council voted unanimously to have a resolution prepared to approve next week. The resolution would join Salt Lake County with three neighbors in a management strategy for dealing with condition of probation prisoners, convicted prisoners who are court ordered to attend a probationary facility rather than prison.

The problem is one of funding. The state doesn’t view condition of probation prisoners as state prisoners and doesn’t budget for them. Counties don’t claim them, either, leaving no one to pick up the tab for the inmates.

The four-county effort would create two separate management plans — one governing county prisoners in county facilities and the other covering state prisoners in county facilities.

Salt Lake County Council Chairman Joe Hatch said the county has always eliminated beds when faced with budget deficits during his eight years on the council. Now, he said, it’s time to try something new.

“We have to have a slight shift in how we approach it to see if that has an effect on the state policy of correction,” Hatch said. “I don’t agree with Utah County on anything, and I’m willing to agree with them on this.”

According to Hatch, this year the state delivered only half of what it promised to help cover costs of housing condition of probation prisoners. That would leave a $900,000 funding gap on July 1 and an even bigger one next year, because the Legislature currently has budgeted no money for jail reimbursement.

“We’re simply housing state prisoners,” Hatch said, “and we’re being expected to go to our residents to collect the money. I think it’s really unfair for us to carry that burden as we have.”

The resolution would unite the four counties with 80 percent of the prisoners in question in lobbying the Legislature, as well as dealing with the budget shortfall uniformly.

If the state provides no funding for its share of the prisoners and still sends more than its quota of inmates, it could mean some prisoners go free to make room for others. Several council members, including Jenny Wilson and Steve DeBry, expressed concern about that idea.

“I wish we could talk about this as a global correction punishment issue,” Hatch said, “but it isn’t. It’s unique funding issue.”

Written by: Abigail Shaha | The Deseret News

Popularity: 8%

Counties along the Wasatch Front are fed up with the state of Utah reimbursing them less and less money for the cost of housing state inmates in county jails.  Now, Salt Lake County is considering whether to join Davis, Weber and Utah Counties in capping the number of state inmates they’ll accept.  Sheriff Jim Winder says the county is only getting reimbursed about 25 percent of what it costs to house state prisoners.

“We average about 300 inmates a day that are of this type, and it costs us $80 a day to house those inmates, and we are reimbursed by the state, presently, at about $22 a day,” he told KCPW.

Winder fears with the state budget facing massive cuts, lawmakers might decide this session not to reimburse county jails a single penny for housing state prisoners.  He hopes lawmakers preserve or increase jail reimbursement to avoid having to release additional inmates.

County Council Chairman Joe Hatch is torn about the proposal to cap the number of inmates the county will accept from the state.  He doesn’t want to see violent criminals released, but he’s also frustrated by the legislature continuing to slash jail reimbursements.

“And that frustration has got to a point that I think we have to do anything, and maybe it’s to the point where desperate times deserve desperate actions, and this is very desperate action, I have to say, it is a very extreme desperate action to take,” said Hatch.

The council will debate the proposed inmate cap at its meeting this afternoon.

Written by: Jeff Robinson | KCPW News

Popularity: 9%

Popularity: 10%

A bill that would force health insurance firms to pay the health care costs of inmates — if the firms were getting premiums from the inmate or his family — failed in the House Tuesday.

HB22 sponsoring Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, said he did not know why “big insurance firms” could refuse to pay for inmate health care just because the patient was in the state prison or jail.

But most House members voted against the bill, saying state taxpayers should pick up the cost, even if the inmate is insured.

Opponents said during debate that the bill painted insurers as bad guys, when in fact the bad guys are the ones who broke laws that got them arrested and incarcerated. They also argued that the bill was anti-free market and smacked of government takeover of a private enterprise.

Although the bill exempted insurers from covering wounds that were the result of fighting in jail or were self-inflicted, the majority of House members apparently were swayed by arguments that the bill amounted to a paradigm shift in the state’s legal obligation to house, feed and see to the medical needs of all Utahns in the custody of county and state corrections agencies.

In the 2008 election, the insurance industry gave $313,311 to state-level candidates (including the Legislature, governor and attorney general), according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

Insurance companies gave the second-most of any industry that year, outdistanced only by the securities and investment industry, which gave $614,207, according to the institute.

And big insurance companies lose few political fights in the Utah Legislature.

The bill would save county jails more money than the state, with only a handful of felons in the state prison having outside health insurance. But a number of county jail inmates, who may be sentenced for several months up to a year, have insurance while incarcerated, Ray said.

“Taxpayers are getting hammered, and it’s time for insurance companies to step up and pay for what they’ve contracted for,” said Ray just before his bill was voted down on a 30-44 vote.

Written by: Bob Bernick Jr. and James Thalman | The Deseret News

Popularity: 7%

Shots fired when car runs over officer’s foot during alleged drug deal.

(Our personal opinion, is this officer needs a serious lesson on when to use his weapon.)

Before he died, Travis Paul Johnson told his mother he didn’t hold a grudge against the police officer who had shot him.

“He was a very good man,” Penny Johnson said of her son. “The only thing he cared about was forgiving the police officer.”

Johnson, 39, died Tuesday at Intermountain Medical Center. A West Valley City police officer shot him in a Burger King parking lot near 3500 South and Redwood Road on Jan. 27 during an alleged drug deal.

According to West Valley City Police, Johnson hit an officer with his Pontiac Grand Am as he tried to drive away from officers. At least three plainclothes officers were monitoring the alleged drug exchange between Johnson and a friend and people in a second car moments before the shooting, West Valley City police Capt. Tom McLachlan said.

Penny Johnson said Wednesday that her son used drugs, but she said she believed him before he died when he told her he wasn’t involved in a drug deal.

What she can’t come to grips with is why police had to shoot him.

“I don’t know why the policeman shot him” she said. “He didn’t hit him [with the car] on purpose. He just panicked.”

Johnson said her son had been a construction worker until May 2008 when he fell 50 feet off a roof and shattered both ankles and his back. She said he was scheduled to undergo surgery again soon and had been on the mend.

Johnson admits she doesn’t know “totally everything that happened” on Jan. 27.

She just wishes her son was still alive.

“He just got caught in a bad place and he was afraid,” Johnson said. “I don’t think he should have been shot. He was unarmed.”

McLachlan previously told The Salt Lake Tribune that at least one officer fired at Johnson because he thought the other officer’s life was in danger when the car ran over the officer’s foot.

After Johnson was shot, his car rolled forward into the Burger King wall where it stopped.

Police arrested four other men in connection with the incident. They remain incarcerated in the Salt Lake County jail.

The Salt Lake County Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case, but has not yet issued a ruling on whether the use of force was justified by police.

Johnson said she and her 10 other children are preparing to bury Travis on Saturday.

“My son was very loving, very good and had a very big heart,” she said.

Written by: Jason Bergreen and Melinda Rogers | The Salt Lake Tribune

Popularity: 8%

SALT LAKE COUNTY — A familiar name in law enforcement is going to make a run at the job of Salt Lake County sheriff. Beau Babka made the announcement Friday morning from the Salt Lake County Jail.

In 2002 he ran against then-Sheriff Aaron Kennard. Now, he’s going to make a run against his former boss, incumbent Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder.

Babka said, “I announce my candidacy for the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Department and for the office of sheriff, and I’m looking to be the nominee for the Republican Party.”

Babka has been a member of the Cottonwood Heights Police Department since 2008. He has been in law enforcement for 18 years, and he’s also taught college courses on criminal justice.

In 2004, he deviated from police work and made a run for Congress. As a Democrat, he ran unsuccessfully against Republican incumbent Chris Cannon for the 3rd Congressional District seat.

A couple of years ago he switched political parties, and now he’ll seek the nomination as a Republican. He hopes to lock that up at the county convention in April.

“I believe with the experience that I’ve had with students, with community people, with elected officials, with other law enforcement officers, I think I can bring a very unique style, a collaborative style, cooperative style,” Babka said.

One of the first things Babka will examine, if elected, are the new fees that have been assessed on residents who are now served by the newly-formed Unified Police Department.

Winder told KSL on Friday he was looking forward to the race. Winder is completing his first term as sheriff.

Who is … Beau Babka?

Written by: Keith McCord | KSL News

Popularity: 8%

Council urges state to pay may or some inmates will be set free.

Felons could get a shorter stay in Salt Lake County’s jail if the Utah Legislature doesn’t pay more for state inmates.

The County Council has signed a resolution — and ordered an ordinance drafted — that could release state convicts early from jail if the Legislature doesn’t provide enough funding to house them. The less money, officials say, the less bed space for felons who are sentenced to the county lockup.

“There does come a time,” Councilman Randy Horiuchi said, “when you have to say, ‘Enough is enough.’”

The Utah Association of Counties has lobbied for similar measures in Davis, Utah and Weber counties, hoping to persuade lawmakers to put more cash into jail reimbursements.
While the state is supposed to split the cost of incarcerating felons in county jails, UAC Executive Director Brent Gardner said, actual funding has fallen far below that. The state set aside $6.5 million for jail reimbursements in this year’s budget, he says, but should be spending closer to $15 million.

UAC’s initiative now has the support of Utah’s most-populous county, where council members unanimously supported a resolution saying they will not continue to subsidize the state’s financial shortfalls.

“It is outrageous that the state, on a yearly basis, provides this unfunded mandate to county governments,” Mayor Peter Corroon said. That mandate affects public safety, “not only for the unincorporated county but for the cities we serve”

The resolution comes as yet another development in the long-running debate about how much the state should pay for inmates serving out their sentences in county jails.

The recession has only deepened the rift. Jails in Utah and Weber counties have reduced bed space because of budget woes.

Salt Lake County Councilman Joe Hatch characterized it as a “very difficult thing to do” to consider turning away felons because of inadequate state funding. But, he said, “we need the money.”

The question now is whether the state, also in a financial bind, will cough up the cash at a time when it is considering closing a prison pod of its own.

Written by: Jeremiah Stettler | The Salt Lake Tribune

Popularity: 7%

We are a new resource online for the public to discuss and submit complaints regarding abuse, misconduct, and bad procedures currently being used by staff at the Salt Lake County Jail and Utah County Jail. Our aim is to make a difference by providing the public, truth about what goes on in our county jails. This will be a continuous record, showing everyone what really happens to our loved ones behind those concrete walls.

Popularity: 13%