Prison officials' bid to buy Oxbow Jail from Salt Lake County could be in jeopardy after a report released Friday by the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst deemed the purchase unnecessary.

"It's an honest difference of perspective between us and the department," legislative fiscal analyst Kevin Walthers told legislators during a joint appropriations committee meeting. "At this point we just don't believe this is a valuable facility."

For now Walthers and officials from the Department of Corrections will meet to hash out some of their differences.

An initial decision on the proposed purchase could come late next week, Walthers said.

If the state does agree to fund the $21 million purchase and renovation of the 552-bed jail, the Department of Corrections would use the facility to house female inmates. Prison officials say Oxbow would increase bed space for the state's growing inmate population, provide a single facility for women and help curb some of the current problems between males and females at the State Prison in Draper.

The two sexes are separated by only a see-through fence. With visual contact, men and women use sign language to carry out illegal activities, prison housing warden Annabelle Fackrelle said.

"They're like mail couriers," Fackrelle said of the approximately 270 women housed at the Point of the Mountain. "That's how men set up their drug deals, their gang violence. The women end up being the go-between. That would be eliminated if we went to Oxbow."

But the estimated $35,000-per-bed price tag to buy and renovate Oxbow, had legislators questioning whether simply building a new prison would be better.

"If the cost comes down to $20,000 to $24,000 a bed, that would be a great deal for the state," Walthers said.

But that kind of bargain is unlikely considering Salt Lake County officials refuse to go below the $16.7-million price tag already quoted to the state.

"The mayor's position is that if we don't sell this it's no big deal," Salt Lake County Deputy Mayor Alan Dayton said. "We would be fine leaving it as it is but we did see this as an opportunity."

As do Department of Corrections officials, who say building a similar facility from the ground up would cost the state $42,000 a bed.

The fiscal analyst suggested alternatives such as jail contracting to provide needed bed space for the expected increase of 324 prisoners a year.

As part of its 2002 budget, the Department of Corrections is asking the state for $4.5 million to cover a shortfall in funding for beds the state rents from county jails this year. The fiscal year ends June 30.

As of Jan. 29, the Department of Corrections housed 1,073 prisoners in 20 county jails at a cost of $43.95 an inmate.

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"The money that was appropriated to us last year is gone in March," Department of Corrections Executive Director Mike Chabries told a joint appropriations committee Wednesday.

"You've always underfunded it," legislative fiscal analyst Bill Dinehart told the committee.

Chabries is also seeking $5 million to fund a 288-bed expansion to the Gunnison prison.


E-mail: djensen@desnews.com

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