Salt Lake County Jail

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%

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%