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96 South Main Street, PO Box 77, Nephi, Utah 84648 - Voice: 435 623-0525 - FAX: 435 623-4735 On our front page this week September 14, 2022 |
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NEW JAIL? • Juab County is looking to replace the current jail in the future and will do a feasibility study to determine what to do. The current jail was completed in 1995 and is 27 years old. By Myrna Trauntvein A new jail is badly needed and would require a bond be passed by the county before the funds could be made available however, a feasibility study would help the county commission make the proper decision. Doug Anderson, Juab County Sheriff, said that the jail needed to be replaced because it was so old that it no longer met state requirements and, in addition, was costing an excessive amount in maintenance. He introduced Rob Cottle, Principal Architect/CEO at Babcock Design Group, Salt Lake City, who has designed many jails and would do a feasibility study for a new jail for Juab County. “We agree that we need a new jail,” said Richard Hansen, commissioner. “It is the ‘how’ that we do not know.” Travis Kenison, chief deputy, said that a feasibility study would help answer that question and would give the county an estimate of the cost to build. Cottle said that he was working with Iron County where commissioners were going through the same need for a new jail as Juab County was. “The jails in both places have exceeded their life spans,” said Cottle. “The reality is that a jail is an expensive facility to build because of the security that has to be built in.” The county should plan on a jail lasting at least 50 years, he said. The current jail was completed in 1995 and is 27 years old. The historic Juab County Jail (behind the DUP Museum) was constructed in 1892 and served 92 years until March 1974, when the Tri-county Detention Center was opened in Nephi. “The feasibility study is the path that others we have worked with have taken,” said Cottle. “Sanpete, Vernal, Kane and Iron have all done the study.” He said that the company would do their due diligence and would bring in experts on the various phases to provide information. He said that the study will help determine the number of beds needed, the needs relative to male/female occupants and the number of rooms needed for state inmates that were being housed in addition to rooms needed for those who were housed by the Sheriffs Office, the Nephi City Police Department and the Utah Highway Patrol (UHP). Cottle said that the study should also include offices for the UHP since they were occupying space in the current jail. “We need to look far into the future,” he said. “We are experiencing a growth spurt in the intermountain west. We do not need to overshoot but we should not undershoot.” The study would also provide conceptual site plans and that would help give reasonable choices. “Stakeholders will be involved in the planning,” said Cottle. A qualifications-based request for proposal (RFP) is a project funding announcement posted by an organization for which companies can place bids. In the case of a qualification-based request, the low dollar bid is not the only way to consider who should get the job. It depends more on the qualifications of the bidder than on the price. “The low-bidder, through change orders, at times turns out to provide the same service a higher priced bid would have provided at that higher price,” said Cottle. “There are no savings.” The study would cost approximately $20,000,000 he said. The jail could likely be built with stories. The bottom story would be the offices, the first story would be for inmates and there would be a space for state inmates separate from the ones being held for local court appearances or jail time. The current jail is built so that there is space for a new one but that might not be the best location, he said. “Maybe another space would be better,” said Richard Hansen, commissioner. “Nephi City might have some space.” Clinton Painter, commissioner, said he also thought that they could find some other options for consideration. “The study would look at sites and consider why one site may be better than another,” said Cottle. “We could get all the options on the table.” Hansen said that it looked like the first step should be getting the feasibility study done. It would be good to get it done. “It is a fairly long process,” said Cottle. “Jails and prisons are not the same. There is a lot less crime around a jail because law enforcement is always coming and going.” Jail can be used to describe a place for those awaiting trial or held for minor crimes, whereas prison describes a place for criminals convicted of serious crimes. The difference between jail and prison is the length of stay for inmates--short-term and long-term. Jails are designed to hold inmates awaiting trial or serving a short sentence. Because prisons are designed for long-term incarceration, they are better developed for the long-term living needs of their populations. The state pays jails correctional costs, said Anderson. That helps with the jail budget. The Juab County Jail needs to be designed to hold local, state and federal prisoners. “The new prison, because of the budget, came in 400 beds short,” said Cottle. “A number of inmates need places so the state is willing to contract with county jails. It helps with operational costs.” It did help rural jails, he said. The type of criminal assigned to a county jail must be a specific population and those inmates should not be mixed with regular inmates, said Cottle. Marvin Kenison, commission chairman, said the county would like to see a contract with Cottle. The county attorney could review the proposal and then make a decision. “We need to look at a contract proposal,” said Painter. | ||
