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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A bill before the Legislature would increase the reimbursement to county jails for housing state prisoners and also would begin work on a long-range plan for another prison.
Sen. David Thomas, R-South Weber, said that under his proposal, the state would pay counties as much as $5 million to $10 million more per year to house inmates.
The bill would buy the state time to plan for another prison, expected to cost about $100 million.
The Department of Corrections contracts for about 1,500 county jail beds, but in the past, has not reimbursed the counties for the full cost.
Corrections pays the counties $43 a day per inmate, but the real cost is closer to $70, prompting some counties to discontinue accepting the inmates.
"If the state expects the counties to be part of the solution ... then we're going to have to start paying what it actually costs," Thomas said.
Last month the inmate population exceeded the available beds in prisons and county jails.
The operational capacity of the state prison in Draper is 6,203, and on Friday it had 6,340 inmates, Corrections spokesman Jack Ford said.
He said the number of inmates is increasing by 250 to 300 each year, and the trend is likely to continue for the next five years.
A 288-bed addition being built at the state prison in Gunnison is scheduled to open this fall.
Beaver County is also expanding its jail by 200 beds, which will be contracted by the state.
"Once those two (facilities) come on line, that should take up the growth this year," Ford said.
At the Draper prison, bunks have been squeezed into dormitories to add a total of 80 or so beds. Ford said that measure that has received only temporary approval from the state fire marshal.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
