The first of three Utah State Prison relocation open houses for the public was held Wednesday night in Salt Lake City and here is a summary of what attendees were told by a panel:
• Prisons don’t lower property values or increase crime, and inmates’ families don’t relocate to prison communities.
• Prisoners haven’t escaped from the state prison in over 20 years, and prisons don’t scare businesses away.
• New infrastructure for a prison, paid by the state, will attract new business.
• Property tax payments won’t go down and sales tax collections will go up.
• Old prisons have tall towers and bright lights, and modern prisons are low profile and high tech.
• The new prison will have the same number of beds as the old one, and the new prison will have programs to help keep prisoners from coming back.
• Members of the Prison Relocation Commission who try to use their position for profit may get a chance to see the prison from the inside.
That’s some of what the state’s Prison Relocation Commission’s panel of experts told nearly 200 citizens who attended the PRC’s question and answer panel discussion at the Utah State Fairgrounds.
But the panel’s answers didn’t sway No Prison in Tooele County co-founder Jewel Allen.
“I think they covered things with a broad brush stroke and ignored some of the negative things,” she said.
The open house started at 4 p.m. with a series of display panels and videos that explained different aspects of the prison relocation process.
The display panels featured maps and pictures of each of the five sites under consideration for the new prison, while legislative staff members manned a display that explained the economic benefits of a new prison.
Staff from the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice and Adult Probation and Parole answered questions at a display on criminal justice reform.
And the PRC’s consultant team engaged the public at a display that highlighted construction elements of modern correctional facilities.
The panel of experts for the question and answer session consisted of PRC co-chairmen, Rep. Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville and Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton.
Also part of the panel were Ron Gordon, executive director of the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice; Rollin Cook, executive director of the Department of Corrections; PRC consultants Bob Nardi and Brad Sassatelli, and Bruce Blackham, mayor of Gunnison, home of the Central Utah Corrections Facility.
Alexis Cairo, a University of Utah adjunct professor of communications, moderated the discussion.
Cairo read written questions submitted during the open house and continued to accept written questions throughout the evening.
Repetitive questions were consolidated. Otherwise, every question or comment was read during the two-hour panel discussion.
The two PRC co-chairmen made it clear that leaving the prison in Draper was not an option.
“We are not here to talk about whether or not to move the prison,” Wilson said. “The PRC is charged with where to move the prison.”
“We live in a republic, and your elected representatives have already voted to move the prison,” Stevenson said.
The PRC has been to Draper and looked at the site. With 100 buildings on the site there isn’t room to build a new prison while operating the old prison at the same time, according to Stevenson.
“I don’t know how the plan could ever come together,” Stevenson said. “We can’t put the kind of incarceration facility we need on the Draper site.”
Even if the prison could be rebuilt on the Draper site, it is not an acceptable location, according to Wilson.
“It doesn’t make any sense to rebuild the prison in the economic job creation hub of the state,” Wilson said. “The consultants and the Legislature all agree that that would be a bad decision.”
Mayor Blackham answered several questions about the impact of a prison on his community.
The crime rate hasn’t gone up in Gunnison, and the community is safe for families, he said.
“We are so lucky to have so many professional trained corrections officers living in our community,” Blackham said. “Our safety has been enhanced by their presence.”
Families of inmates have not moved to Gunnison, according to Blackham.
“On visiting day people come into town,” he said. “They buy some gas and some goodies and they go home.”
The entire Wednesday night question and answer panel discussion can be found on YouTube by searching for “Prison Relocation Panel Q&A.”
The PRC open house will come to Grantsville High School on May 28. The open house will start at 4 p.m. with a question and answer session from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Another open house will be held June 2 at Frontier Middle School in Eagle Mountain.
Stevenson expects the commission will have a site recommendation ready in six weeks after the June 2 open house.