Davis jail may be getting more state inmates
Text 
No Comments [ Add Comment ]By Jeff DeMoss
Standard-Examiner staff
jdemoss@standard.net
S
ALT LAKE CITY -- The Davis County Jail, which is nearing completion of a $24.8 million expansion, could be getting up to 50 more inmates if a joint resolution that made it through the state Senate Monday survives a House of Representatives vote as expected.
Senate Joint Resolution 7, sponsored by Sen. Mike Waddoups, R-Salt Lake City, would double the jail's current contract with the Utah Department of Corrections from 50 inmates to 100.
The department is allowed to contract with county governments to send inmates to county-owned facilities, but only after the Legislature approves a joint resolution specifying the additional number of beds and other terms.
Under the proposed deal, the Department of Corrections will pay Davis County $42.32 per inmate for each day they are housed at the jail. The deal does not include provisions for additional expansion of the jail.
"The idea that has been explained to me is that with the new jail, they have the ability to place more of these people in Davis, at a lower cost than the current facilities they are in," Waddoups said.
The resolution received its first reading Monday morning. Normally it would go to the Senate Rules Committee for assignment, but a committee assignment, as well as the second and third readings of the bill, were suspended to allow the resolution be sent to the House as soon as possible per the request of the parties involved.
"The rules committee had a prior report which had some items go to a second reading without going to committee," Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said.
"This is often a controversial move, but the Rules Committee thought it was a legitimate request."
The first vote on the resolution placed it at the top of the second reading list. It passed unanimously.
"This is not an attempt to circumvent the system," Waddoups said. "It's to allow the system to work."
The House is expected to consider the resolution today.
Add Your Comment
