The new Salt Lake County jail will be finished on schedule despite a late start, county officials are promising alarmed residents.
But, by then, the city could be overrun with criminals and illegal aliens, say residents and police frustrated by the revolving door at the current jail."Basically, before I finish with my paperwork I'm seeing the same people (who were arrested earlier) back out on the street," said Salt Lake Police Officer Phil Kearney.
Police who work to rid the downtown area of drugs say their biggest obstacle is lack of jail space. "If we were keeping these guys in jail, it wouldn't be this big of a problem."
Many arrestees are released almost immediately because of crowding at the jail. The prompt release guts the impact of drug sweeps through Pioneer Park, police and residents say.
Despite the efforts of police, which include a massive 30-day undercover operation in a four-block radius of Pioneer Park, it takes just a few minutes, a little eye contact to meet someone offering to sell you drugs downtown.
Undercover detective Robin Howell walked down 300 South in the middle of the afternoon and bought cocaine and heroine from two people in about 10 minutes. He didn't have to walk more than 200 yards for both offers.
Chris Hopfenbek owns a store near Pioneer Park. "People won't come down here at all. You drive down and the drug guys will try to open your door to do a deal. They are bugging you constantly."
Salt Lake County Commissioners Brent Overson and Mary Callaghan met with the Rio Grande Community Council Thursday to allay fears over delays in the construction of the jail. The county got a late start on the design phase because county officials couldn't agree on an architectural firm to do the work.
But county can catch up and finish the 1,800-bed facility by the promised July 1998 completion date, Overson promised constituents Thursday. "We can make up for the three months. Absolutely."
The county plans to make up for lost time by bidding out elements of the $107 million project as soon as the design for that element is finished. When the Salt Palace was built, the county waited until the entire design was finished then called for bids on the entire proj-ect.
Problems with the county's own cost estimates slowed the bidding down, Overson said. "The design and bidding took 18 months," he recalled.
This time, the design and construction teams are working more closely together. "As soon as they complete the design on elements of the project, they can go to bid. The brick work, concrete and security, it will all be segmented and bid independently."
That way, the county can compress the design and bidding phase, making up for its late start, he said.
But Overson and Callaghan offered little hope for the present crisis. The county has offered to buy a van and hire deputies to assist in the deportation of illegal aliens, Overson said. But the Immigration and Naturalization Service hasn't responded to the offer, he said.
Selling drugs is a felony, buying them only a misdemeanor. The sellers are disproportionately illegal aliens who use different names every time they're arrested.
"These illegal aliens are controlling our lives," Hopfenbek complained to the commissioners.
One man arrested Tuesday for selling Howell drugs had 10 aliases, two outstanding arrest warrants (for distributing a controlled substance), and he'd been deported before.
During the 30-day sting in the Pioneer Park area about 193 people were arrested for felonies related to selling drugs. About 81 percent of them were illegal aliens.
One man was arrested four times, five people were arrested three times and 17 people were arrested twice, all booked on felonies and all arrested and re-arrested just during the 30-day sting.
Smith said his officers have been told by those they've arrested that the word is out in Mexico that Salt Lake City is soft on drug crimes.
He believes if the average citizen really understood the magnitude of the downtown drug problem, they'd put pressure on county officials to come up with solutions other than "throwing their hands in the air and saying `we can't do anything.' "
The county is doing everything it can, Overson said. The new pod of the Oxbow facility will open in July, creating 184 new beds for women there. The county jail will transfer all its women there, opening up 100 beds in the downtown jail for violent offenders.
The 10th floor of the Metropolitan Hall of Justice has been turned into a temporary jail, housing approximately 40 women. The county has authorized the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Department to put an aditional 40 beds on the ninth floor, Overson said.
"That's putting 274 beds available to police . . . Is that enough? I don't think so. We need other strategies."