Yesterday, January 16th, I had the opportunity to speak before the Utah Prison Location Committee Consultant and several of the committee members. This is what I presented.

"I am the founder of the Utah Prison Support group, an organization whose mission is to assist Offenders’ Families with problems they might be having navigation the UDC system. Another main focus for my organization is Sentencing Reform and the need to revamp the way Offenders are sentenced here in Utah.

Utah does not need to move their prison. Utah needs to re-evaluate what is needed to assist these Offenders to make them productive members of society once they are released.

Several Correctional Officers testified at the September 16^th meeting of this committee. At this time, they voiced their concerns about moving the prison to another location. Not only would a move affect these officers’ careers, it would have a huge impact on their family. Quality Officers are at a premium and Utah needs to do everything they can to keep them. If they leave because they cannot afford to travel to a remote site in all kinds of weather, than shame on you the Utah Law Makers!

Volunteers, the backbone of the programming at UDC would also face a hardship and dwindle. These people unselfishly give of their time, and money, to assist the Offenders. Without these Volunteers, the cost of incarceration would skyrocket even higher. Or on the other side of the scale, the Offenders would once again become nothing more than a barcode in a warehouse.

We cannot let this happen.

The recidivism rate in Utah is one of the highest in our country and we should be ashamed of that. According to an article published in the Salt Lake Tribune, a study, conducted between 2002 and 2012, 67% of new commitments to UDC were repeat offenders. Utah ranks second in the nation in sending parole violators back to prison. Many parole violators are returned to prison on technical infractions. Is sending them back to prison and creating an “overcrowded facility” on paper the answer? I say no.

At the September meeting, Mayor Ben McAdams spoke about the need to explore sentencing reform. I agree with him. Moving the prison is NOT the answer. The answer is reformation of the manner in which these Offenders are sentenced. Someone with numerous commitments during their lifetime is being paroled and the Offender who is a first time offender is being held far longer than the Sentencing Commission guidelines matrix.

Moving the prison is NOT the answer. UDC and the Legislature need to take a long hard look at the way the Board of Pardons is handing down sentencing. Indeterminate sentencing is not always the answer. A letter went out to every member of the Criminal Justice Subcommittee with a well written Dual Mode Sentencing proposal attached. I hope and pray that these members read the information that was sent.  And does it make sense financially, to keep Offenders in the prison at the cost of around $30,000 per year if there is an Immigration detainer on them?

Unfortunately, this all boils down to the mighty dollar! UDC makes money from these repeat offenders. Keeping a supply coming through the “revolving doors of UDC” is job security. Rather than spend money….the Utah taxpayers’ money --- to actually rehabilitate these Offenders, they give them band aids rather than a major dressing over their gaping wound. This has to stop.

Rather than moving the prison, update what is already there.

In December, an Offender was transported from Gunnison to Draper for a medical appointment. This was during one of the biggest snow storms of the season. Not only was the heat not working in A-West, there was snow actually coming in through a missing vent in the ceiling. Why not fix what is already there?  If it is beyond repair, replace it. Do not move the prison.

There has to be a better use of all of this money the Committee wants to spend. Educate the Offenders, do not just patch them up and hope for the best. Give them a marketable skill. Help them understand the why of their incarceration. But do not spend our hard earned money to move something that will only benefit those who sit on this committee. Several committee members have taken the “hurry up and let’s get this done” attitude and in researching these members, it was found that these same members are the ones who will benefit financially from this proposed move.

Even the cost of this consultant is extreme. A half of a million dollars of OUR money….for what? Add this cost to the already high mounting costs of the investigation of the former Attorney General, the cost to stay the same gender marriages and I can see Utah becoming bankrupt very quickly.

Please, look at what we already have. If something needs to be fixed physically… a building needs to be updated, torn down, or expand the Gunnison facility whatever… do it. Do not move this prison. We, the taxpayers do not want it. Use the proposed budget money to expand the educational programming at the prisons."