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: Grits for Breakfast

'Just remember, you're paying for it'

County jails all over the country have many of the same problems, and in Salt Lake City they're considering copying an approach tried in San Antonio to divert nonviolent and mentally ill offenders from the jail. Reports the Salt Lake City Tribune ("Thinking outside the cellblock," June 25): Utah's most-populous county is straining under the inmate crush. The sheriff releases hundreds every month from the 2,000-capacity Adult Detention Center because of overcrowding and now is prepping a second jail, Oxbow, for operation. But even with the new beds, Sheriff Jim Winder concedes more jails offer only a short-term remedy. "You can't build your way out of this problem," he says. So the county is contemplating an innovation that would provide a "door No...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on June 26, 2009 (boomark / email).