A resolution to move the Utah State Prison from Draper to a site west of Salt Lake City global Airport has been finalized after passing votes from both chambers of the Utah Legislature Wednesday and being signed by Gov. Gary Herbert Thursday.
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Governor Herbert is expected to approve the decision once it hits his desk. “It’s in a remote location, yet conveniently located for transportation, employees and healthcare”.
A former mayor of Salt Lake City has sued the National Security Agency over what he calls a mass warrantless surveillance program monitoring texts, emails and phone calls during the 2002 Winter Olympics.
A trio of Democratic state lawmakers is also pushing back, suggesting the move to the city’s west side will hurt the local economy.
Wilson said lawmakers who believe the site selection was purely political “probably don’t have a thorough understanding of the exhaustive process that the commission members went through to try to find a site that’s in the best interest of all Utahns”.
“The fact that Salt Lake City is predominantly Democratic makes it easier for the Legislature, being made up as it is as supermajority Republican, to say, ‘Let’s just put it in Salt Lake, ‘” King said. “I hope, in the spirit of cooperation, we can come together to come up with a win-win situation for everybody”. Lawmakers promise that building a new, shiny building in an industrial park will facilitate a new era of enlightened criminal justice in Utah. The land at the proposed site is soft and may require foundation supports that could stretch 12 stories underground to make the construction of the facility feasible.
Herbert said he knows the site isn’t flawless, but that it is the best site for the city and the state.
“That is some of the most valuable real estate along the Wasatch Front. We need to explain what the economic benefit will actually be to the citizens of Utah”.
Some opponents of the prison move are critical of the process. He led a protest against the Iraq War during President Bush’s 2007 visit to Salt Lake City.
State Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, center, co-chair of the prison commission, speaks to the Utah Senate while they take up a controversial proposal to relocate the state prison near Salt Lake City’s airport during the Legislature’s one-day special session Wednesday, August 19, 2015, in Salt Lake City.
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“I’m absolutely confident the House of Representatives will do the right thing”, he said. “They searched through as many as 60 locations and did the work as fairly as they could”.
