SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker jumped the gun Tuesday in holding a press conference and coming out against what the city said was the expansion of a federal halfway house.

But the private company that contracts with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to run the Glendale facility said there are no plans to expand.

The city received a letter last month from the GEO Group, saying it intends to bid on a federal request to manage the Salt Lake residential reentry center at 1585 W. 2100 South. The Florida-based company currently oversees the halfway house where up to 115 offenders transition from prison to the community.

"The GEO Group has operated the center for 20 years under strict contractual requirements set by the federal government, as well as rigorous standards set by leading third-party accreditation entities, including the American Correctional Association," according to an email response to a Deseret News inquiry.

"GEO is currently pursuing a continued contract for the management of the existing center, and there are no plans for an expansion."

It appears Salt Lake officials misunderstood a March 12 letter from GEO before deciding to hold a news conference Tuesday where Becker voiced his opposition to an expansion. He also released a letter the city planned to send to the federal prisons bureau outlining its objections.

City spokesman Art Raymond later acknowledged that the city misinterpreted the letter. But whether it's an expansion or contract extension, he said, the city's concerns remain the same.

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Controversy around moving the Utah State Prison likely played into Becker coming out swiftly and publicly Tuesday against the possibility of more inmate beds in Salt Lake City.

A site near the Salt Lake City International Airport is on a list of finalists the Utah Legislature's Prison Relocation Commission is considering. Becker strongly opposes relocating the prison to Salt Lake City from its current site in Draper.

Becker said at the news conference that Salt Lake City has a disproportionate share of correctional facilities, especially in the Glendale area where the federal halfway house sits.

"We don't need another one. We don't want another one. We're going to do everything we can to stop it," the mayor told reporters. "It creates a stigma for the neighborhood."

Of the state’s five community correction facilities, three are located in Salt Lake City, including a recently opened 300-bed parole violator center, according to the city. Officials said 63 percent of male and all female state prison parolees are housed in the city.

The federal contract with the GEO Group, a private company that runs correctional, detention and community reentry facilities worldwide, appears to expire at the end of the year. The bureau of prisons requires firms bidding to run the facility to notify and seek input from local elected officials.

Federal prison officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Raymond said despite the city's misstep, the contract review process gives city leaders and residents a chance to weigh in over how the halfway house is working.

The Salt Lake reentry center is the only federal correctional facility in Utah, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website. The bureau transfers inmates who are within a few months of release to the center for help in making the transition into the community.

The Wasatch Front is big enough to accommodate prison facilities in places other than the capital city, Becker said, adding they shouldn't be congregated in one area.

"It's not as though in an 80-mile corridor here we can't find other locations that can effectively provide for those varieties of facilities that corrections needs," the mayor said.

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