Slowing growth of the state's prison population has prompted Corrections officials to delay its expansion projects -- including the construction of a new 500-bed private prison in Grantsville.
Executive Director Pete Haun told lawmakers Wednesday during the meeting of the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee that prison growth has declined for the first time in years.Instead of the 450 new inmates the prison typically receives each year, only 250 arrived in the fiscal year that ended June 30.
That slowing comes at a time when the prison had been desperate for new bed space, causing a curious problem for those in the corrections industry.
As a result, Haun is delaying the 288-bed expansion at the Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison, setting a targeted completion date in July 2001 instead of finishing the $2.1 million project in the year 2000.
The department had also been set to contract as many as 350 beds in Weber County when its new correctional facility opens. Instead, a delay in the completion of that project outside of the department's control means it won't get those beds for an additional nine months.
Haun conceded the most significant delay with impact on a community is the slowdown in the construction of the private prison near Grantsville in Tooele County.
In June, Cornell Corrections Inc. of California won the bid to build and operate the state's first privatized medium security prison.
The plan was to have the facility in operation by next year, but delays in the finalization of the bids coupled with the slowdown in inmate growth led Haun to announce Wednesday he has a target completion date of 2002.
Haun said he still plans to sign the contract with Cornell this month, a move objected to by private prison opponents.
Steve Erickson, a spokesman with the Utah Citizens Education Project, told lawmakers the state needs to delay formalizing the contract because existing legislation fails to impose proper safeguards. Afterward, he voiced his frustration.
"I am disappointed that corrections is moving forward," he said. "I still feel the Legislature should take another look at this . . . . Once you get a corporate money making interest in the game, it distorts the process."