The Piute County Commissioners are considering the benefits of constructing a county jail.
At the April meeting, the Commissioners discussed setting up a steering committee to review the possibility of building a county jail on property the county already owns west of Junction. Sheriff Marty Gleave explained that county jails are able to choose which prisoners they accept from the Utah State corrections system, and be reimbursed by the state for each day for each prisoner housed.
Sheriff Gleave estimated that a 100-bed facility – like the one in nearby Garfield County – could provide over 30 well-paying jobs with benefits for the Piute County economy. “We need to provide good jobs that can lead to careers in law enforcement to help our kids be able to stay in the county,” said Sheriff Gleave.
The commissioners agreed to create a steering committee to explore grant funding to build the jail. The jail project would have to be funded from state and federal sources in order to succeed.
Corrections officers and employees at the jail would have to be 19 years or older and pass a background check. Other positions in the jail would include food service, facility maintenance, medical care and therapy. A jail commander would run the jail, leaving the sheriff and deputies to continue their normal daily duties.
School Superintendent Koby Willis had spoken at the commissioners meeting about the struggle Piute schools have in maintaining enrollment when families must move out of the county to find a living wage. The jobs a jail provides would increase the number of families sending children into the Piute school system.
Tyler Timmons, community advisor from R6 (formerly known as Six County Association of Governments), is assisting the steering committee in exploring programs that will help provide affordable housing in the county. This would be a critical portion of the jail project and would enable the employees and their families to own housing in Piute County.
Timmons and the committee will explore programs such as mutual self-help housing (where families help contractors build their own homes while learning construction skills), Crown Homes rent to own, and Utah First-time Homebuyer Law Enforcement Officer Grants. These affordable housing options would benefit all eligible Piute County residents as well as the county jail employees.
“We know that a lot of our Piute kids leave the area to find good jobs and careers,” said Sheriff Gleave. “They tell us that they would love to move back to Piute County if they could find work to support their families. We want to explore whether a county jail could help provide that option for our Piute kids.”
– by Bill Davis, Mayor of Marysvale
Feature image courtesy of Jimmy Emerson, DVM.