Prison Impact on Tooele County & Utah

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• A Prison Relocation Commission has been charged with locating sites within the State for the relocation of the Utah State Prison currently in Draper.

• In October, 2014, the PRC announced Tooele County was not on the shortlist.

• On December 3, 2014, the PRC announced that a site adjacent to Miller Motorsports Park was #6 on the list.

• A meeting was held on December 22, 2014, and Tooele County remains on the shortlist of 3 sites still being considered. The three are the Miller site, one in Eagle Mountain, and one at 7200 West & I-80.
• On Feb. 27, two more sites were added: one by Walmart DC in Grantsville, and one by Fairfield in Utah County. The site at 7200 West has been expanded to include more land.

• Increased air pollution from added 100-mile round trip commute of visitors, volunteers, prisoners and employees
• Will make family support of inmates more difficult due to lack of mass transportation
• Higher cost of utilities, especially providing continuous potable water in the west desert
• Insufficient health services for inmates within close access to prison
• One freeway access that in bad weather or accident gets shut down for hours

• Water
• Employment Opportunities
• Tax Revenue
• Economic Benefit
• Education
• Mental Health Resources
• Pollution
• Roads
• Property Values

• The current site uses an estimated 250 million gallons of water annually, roughly equal to 1600 residential homes, and half of Grantsville City’s current annual use. The PRC estimates a projected growth of 50% by 2033, which means more water usage then.

• Water usage is the top question for any business that wants to relocate to Tooele County.

• Do we want to divert water from a commercial or residential tax-base?

• Depending on the site, treatment may be needed to reduce pollutants or hardness.

• Tooele County faces chronic drought. We are 46% of wetpack and 3 inches below precipitation.*

• A 2005 Water study recommended caution in development projects due to either stress to wetlands and basin aquifer.**

• Though many rural communities are enticed by the possibility that a prison facility will boost their depressed local economy, increasing evidence suggests that new prisons do not increase employment opportunities in the host communities.

• Many of the jobs available through the prison require a certain amount of education and experience that the rural community members mayor may not have

• Prior literature has indicated that prison employees prefer to commute to rural prisons and reside in more populated, urban areas, suggesting that local employment opportunities within the prison facility may not be abundant.

• A prison is a non-tax paying entity.

• Only 11% of Tooele County land is taxable. If any private land is used for the prison it will be 1:1 acre reduction in taxable property.

• Property used to house a prison cannot also be used to house commercial or industrial developments which would feed tax revenue into our local economy. 

• A study on the economic changes associated with a new prison(Besser & Hanson, 2004) found that new state prison communities experienced less growth than non-prison communities.

• Host communities saw less increase in non-agricultural employment, retail sales, and average household wages than non-prison communities.

• The prison doesn’t bring in new revenues for TCSD or improve market value or tax revenues.

• We will see an increase in Adult Ed funding, but also an increase in expenses.

• We may have to subsidize these Adult Ed programs from the general fund.

• The County already has the 4th lowest per pupil spending in the state.

• About 45% of federal prisoners have a mental health problem(James & Glaze)

• In Tooele County, of the estimated adults in need of mental health treatment, only 24% are receiving that treatment.

• There is a direct relationship between mental health problems and rates of re-offending.

• Constructing a state prison in Tooele County has the ability to impact the level of air pollutant-related health outcomes in the short term and long term…

•  Short Term: Construction activities could produce substantial amounts of air pollutants that increase health risks to construction workers and local residents. The amount of air toxins produced during construction would vary depending on the condition and age of the construction equipment used.

• Long Term: Regional amounts of pollutant levels will be negatively impacted by the anticipated increase in vehicle miles traveled to Tooele County, including additional travel by employees and prisoner families. Tooele and the surrounding communities will experience additional air pollutants that will impact the air quality.

• We have only one freeway entry into the Tooele Valley. Prison employees, volunteers, family/visitors and general prison traffic flow would either exit on SR36 and take SR138 to Grantsville or I-80 to Burmester and backtrack (assuming Miller site). Both roads are ill equipped to take the additional traffic. Maintenance costs would also increase with the traffic.

• Highway SR138 is already 30% above capacity.

• A study which reviewed 176 small towns that had a state prison found a lower median value in housing when compared to small towns without a prison.

• A lack of healthcare resources in our county may lead to poor healthcare outcomes once prisoners are reintegrated into society.Unfavorable health outcomes have a direct link to increasing foreclosure rates,which will lower surrounding property values.

• Tooele County Health Impact Assessment:  http://tooelehealth.org/wp-content/uploads/Health-Impact-Assessment-Potential-Prison-Move-10-15-14.pdf

• “Building a Prison Economy in Rural America” by public policy analyst and award-winning filmmaker Tracy Huling: http://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/building.html

• Utah State Prison recidivism rates presentation: http://le.utah.gov/lrgc/briefings/bagelsbriefings.inmaterecidivism.pdf

• No Prison In Tooele County Website:  <a>http://noprisonintooelecounty.org/

• Keep It In Draper Campaign: https://www.facebook.com/groups/keepitindraper/