Weber County voters to weigh in on $98M bond question for jail upgrades
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- A rendering of the proposed Weber Justice Center at the southwest corner of 12th Street and Depot Drive in Ogden. The new facility is a key part of the proposed upgrade of the Weber County jail, focus of a $98 million bond question to go to voters on Nov. 21, 2023.
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- The language of a $98 million bond proposal to go to Weber County voters, proposed to upgrade Weber County Sheriff’s Office and Jail facilities. Weber County commissioners on Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023, approved a resolution putting the bond to voters.
OGDEN — For more than two years, the Weber County Sheriff’s Office has been looking into expanding the jail, focused in particular on how to augment mental health and medical offerings for inmates.
Now a formal proposal has emerged calling for up to $98 million in upgrades, including construction of a new four-story facility called the Weber Justice Center. The existing sheriff’s office structure, containing the main jail, would also face a major overhaul with the addition of a new 48-bed section that would provide for the medical and mental health needs of inmates.
It’s not a settled matter, though. Voters will first have to give the plan a thumbs up, and a property tax hike would be part of the deal. To that end, Weber County commissioners on Tuesday approved a resolution calling for placement of a question on the Nov. 21 ballot asking voters to decide if up to $98 million in bonds should be issued to pay for the plans.
The cost of the bonding, to be paid of over 21 years, would require a property tax hike that would boost taxes on a home valued at $468,000, the average in Weber County, by $54.09 per year, according to proposition language.
County Commissioner Sharon Bolos favors the plans, explaining that augmenting mental health care for inmates would go a long way in preparing them for life outside the jail, serving as a hedge against recidivism. Ditto for planned social service offerings that would be housed in the Weber Justice Center, which would also contain a minimum-security, work-release facility.
“We don’t want repeat customers,” that is, a revolving door of inmates, Bolos said.
County Commissioner Gage Froerer also offered supportive words for the plans, noting that the inmates largely come from Weber County.
“I think it’s important to realize what we’re doing here … is really taking care of our community first,” he said at Tuesday’s meeting. “Not other communities, other counties, other states.”
Though the ballot question calls for up to $98 million in bonding, Sheriff Ryan Arbon thinks the price tag could come in lower. “I think it’s going to be well under 98. So we’re just being super cautious,” he said.
A prior proposal called for $62.4 million in sheriff’s office and jail improvements, but the price of that configuration has since risen to $140 million due to inflation and other factors, according to Arbon. That prompted the county and its consultants to consider alternatives, leading to the new proposal that shouldn’t top $98 million.
Here are details of the proposal:
Medical, mental health needs: A new section with 48 beds for inmates with mental health and other medical issues would be added to the northeastern section of the sheriff’s office facilities: 32 for male inmates, 16 for female inmates. As is, the existing jail, completed in 2000, contains six medical cells.
That expansion is needed, according to Chief Deputy Phillip Reese, due to the increasing number of inmates hooked on opioids like fentanyl or experiencing mental illness. “Fentanyl is making a big push in our county,” Reese said.
He estimates that over half of the jail inmates suffer from drug or alcohol abuse issues or mental health issues, everything ranging from depression to schizophrenia. Moreover, while just three to four inmates were on suicide watch at any given time when he started working at the jail in 2003, he said, the figure has since increased to 15 or so, underscoring the increase in mental health issues.
Arbon, moreover, cited new guidelines governing care of jail inmates. “This care that we’re doing is mandated by the state and the system. We want to do it, we just want to do it proper,” he said.
Video court: The facilities at the jail for remote court hearings held via video would be expanded. That would reduce the need to transport inmates to 2nd District Court and other facilities, cutting jail costs.
“We need more space and more technology,” Arbon said.
Weber Justice Center: The four-story Weber Justice Center, which would be built on county-owned land on the southwestern corner of 12th Street and Depot Drive, would contain 225 beds for minimum-security inmates, both male and female. The structure would sit north of the Weber Valley Juvenile Detention Center, which sits north of the existing sheriff’s office.
The facility would house work-release programming and contain space for social workers from “allied agencies.” Those social workers would work with inmates on a range of issues, aiming to prepare them for life outside the jail.
Administration offices in the existing sheriff’s office structure would be given over to jail expansion and shifted to the new building, measuring around 110,000 square feet. Patrol officers and investigators would likewise move from the old building to the new one.
County officials are planning efforts to get word out about the proposals. According to the resolution approved Tuesday, a public hearing will be held on the matter at 6 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Weber Center, which houses most county offices, at 2380 Washington Blvd.
“We just feel the community ought to help us on this,” Arbon said. “We just feel we’re trying to do something good for the community.”
Like Bolos, Arbon said a key aim of the expansion and augmented offerings is reducing inmate recidivism.
Froerer spoke to three sheriffs from around the country at a national conference of county officials who also stressed the importance of adding the sort of offerings proposed.
“Every one of them said until you deal with mental health, until you deal with opioids and drug abuse, all you’re going to do is have a rotating door where (inmates are) going to go out one day and come back the next,” he said.