Not only is the Utah County Jail's "chain-gang," or work diversion program, saving the county money on a long-delayed construction project, it also may be making money to help expand the program.
The Utah County Commission recently granted salvage rights for rail ties and tracks from a stretch of the old Heber Creeper railroad line to the weekend work-release program. For more than a month, groups of Utah County Jail inmates have been removing the heavy wooden rail ties and steel tracks as part of a bicycle path construction project near Vivian Park in Provo Canyon.Utah County Sheriff Dave Bateman said he isn't sure how much money the salvaged rails and ties will actually yield. He did say that every bit helps, especially when it comes to a program that is relieving drastic overcrowding at the jail - which has forced the Utah County Sheriff's Office to come up with new, or old, solutions like the chain gang.
"We were having to turn away people who were coming in to serve their time on weekends. In some cases, we had a waiting list of three to four months just to get into the jail," Bateman said. "Because of that, we had people falling through the cracks, or not getting their time served."
Sheriff's officials got a $38,000 federal grant to start the program this year. Bateman said all the money the county gets from the salvaged goods will go to improving and expanding the program.
The groups of 15 in the weekend work-diversion program have been sentenced to spend time in the jail. But these prisoners, who aren't actually chained, can go home after their nine-hour workdays. Those workdays take the crews around the county, where the crews work on county or community projects that other county crews haven't been able to get to - or projects the county hasn't been able to perform - such as the bike-path project.
County Engineer Clyde Naylor said that project is one that has been delayed almost three years because of legal problems or costs.
"We should now have the path open by next spring, instead of next fall, which we would have been looking at if we had to contract the project out," Naylor said, adding that it will save the county a "significant amount."
Bateman said there will also be significant savings in the jail budget because officials won't have to pay to house the prisoners, and the only meals the county pays for are sack lunches.
"This really is more cost-effective than housing the prisoners, and besides, it's a really effective use of county resources," he said. "That's not to mention how it helps the crowding situation. This will free up beds for those who are booked into the jail on Fridays or Saturdays."