After sitting dormant for more than seven years, Oxbow Jail is again populated with prisoners.
On Saturday morning the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office escorted 165 prisoners to Oxbow Jail at 3148 S. 1100 West, where they will continue to serve out their sentences and prepare for re-entry into the community. Corrections Bureau Chief Rollin Cook said the opening of Oxbow will alleviate years of strain placed on the Adult Detention Center from overcrowding and provide a "therapeutic campus" to expand education and rehabilitation programs.
"The important part of someone being incarcerated is to give them the opportunities they may not have had in the past," Cook said. "It's not about putting people in beds, but finding ways to address the needs of the community."
The Adult Detention Center has operated at maximum capacity of 2,000 inmates and has struggled to house and rehabilitate new arrivals, yet the volume of arrests allowed more than 800 prisoners every month to be released early from their sentence or immediately after booking. Oxbow houses inmates with nonviolent offenses and misdemeanors. To reduce recidivism rates, Cook said, prisoners must leave jails better prepared to successfully return to society.
"(Oxbow) isn't going to be about warehousing prisoners," Cook said Saturday. "It's about rehabilitating them and helping them help themselves when they get out."
Cook said Oxbow will be working to identify the needs of the prison population so programs and counseling can be geared to address specific issues inmates are facing. According to a recent report from the Re-Entry Council, about three-quarters of prisoners housed at Oxbow have a substance abuse problem, two-thirds have no high school diploma and half were earning less than $600 a month prior to incarceration.
To address obstacles that may have contributed to an inmate's incarceration, Oxbow offers myriad programs, such as Corrections Addiction Treatment Services to develop skill sets that allow prisoners to succeed outside the jails walls. The program is popular with inmates and judges, and it will nearly double in size from 64 to 120, Cook said.
In addition, prisoners can receive training in interview techniques when applying for work and can work toward obtaining their high school diplomas. In 2004, Cook said, 10 to 15 inmates completed their GEDs; in 2008 more than 100 did. Utah State University allows inmates to train to become master gardeners. To receive the certificate, inmates plant and harvest crops that are sold at the Salt Lake City Farmers Market or is donated to the homeless shelter.
The Jail Industries Location and Education program, which gets prisoners out of jail and into the work force, lets about 20 inmates who are in good standing with the prison to receive vocational training, said Capt. Kevin Harris with the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office. Prisoners are taken to and from work at assembly lines, warehouses and food services to earn a day's pay. Yet the money prisoners bring in doesn't necessarily stay in their own pockets.
"Depending on how long a prisoner is here, they could leave with a couple grand," Harris said. But the jail takes its share. Fifty-five percent of the prisoner's paycheck is funneled back into the jail to fund their incarceration, another 5 percent goes towards any victims, and every prisoner is required to save at least 20 percent. The rest is theirs to spend. Last year the program generated about $300,000 in revenue for the jail system with only about 30 inmates participating. Utah County has about 200 inmates working in a similar program and they net nearly $2 million. Oxbow has a total capacity of 552, but there are no immediate plans to open the other two wings of the facility. It costs about $40,000 every month to keep the jail operating, and with $2.5 million in budget cuts looming for the sheriff's office, Oxbow may not be in operation long. But, Cook said, "We're going to make an effort to keep it open."
e-mail: cnorlen@desnews.com