Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County may continue to be at odds over how to solve the jail crowding until a new jail opens in 1999.
Salt Lake Mayor Deedee Cor-ra-di-ni was surprised and, at first, upset with Salt Lake County's de-ci-sion last week not to rent 100 jail beds from Utah County.But after hearing what a jail consultant hired and paid for by the city had to say about the decision, she sent Commission Chairwoman Mary Callaghan a letter asking county officials to consider implementing other solutions that will be proposed in the consultant's draft report next week.
Callaghan's response to the letter was frustration.
"The bottom line is that most of these ideas we studied 18 to 24 months ago, and many were implemented a year ago," Callaghan said. "I think he (the consultant) doesn't have a good grasp of what Salt Lake County has done."
For example, Callaghan said, his suggestion that the jail not be the place for those whose only crime is public intoxication. Instead, he suggests spending money on less expensive, and in the long run, more effective and appropriate detoxification beds.
Callaghan said the county has done that.
"We've put millions of dollars into detox beds," she said.
Corradini was "disturbed" to learn, by reading a newspaper article, that the county wouldn't rent 100 beds from Utah County this year. Instead, the county decided to put the $2 million into a fourth section in the jail under construction.
"We can't survive for the next two and a half years until the new jail opens," Corradini said. "You've got to find the money for both (interim and long-term solutions)."
But Callaghan said its the county's money and the county's decision.
"I don't care (if the city is upset)," Callaghan said. "They're making a comment without all of the information. We believe it's more fiscally responsible to put (the money) in a more permanent solution."
Corradini said officials cannot just continue to release criminals because of a federal court order forbidding overcrowding.
"It's not right and the citizens can't take it," Corradini said.
The city's consultant, Alan Kalmanoff, will present city officials with a draft of his study, done with the cooperation of county officials, next week. He suggests using a number of less expensive, but also less secure, options to better manage the jail population.
Among his suggested solutions are the use of electronic monitoring, more detox beds and ways to deal with the mentally ill.