Mayor Becker, Council Encourage Residents to Participate in Prison Relocation Commission Public Meeting
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – June 15, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) – Mayor Ralph Becker and the City Council encourage residents to make their voices heard at a meeting of the Utah Legislature’s Prison Relocation Commission on Tuesday, June 16 at 6 p.m. in Room 30 of the Capitol House Building.
Mayor Becker and the Council remain staunchly opposed to the state relocating the prison to Salt Lake City and have provided the commission and legislators with wide-ranging documentation and data outlining concerns.
Shared concerns with the prison moving to Salt Lake City are significant:
• The proposed site represents a serious public safety threat, particularly when a seismic event occurs.
• The taxpayer cost of building the roads and the other infrastructure necessary to build a prison at this site would be extremely high.
• The taxpayer costs required to address the inherent and consequential environmental conditions on this site are excessive.
• The costs of constructing a prison facility in a high liquefaction zone would also be significant.
• The Salt Lake City community already hosts a disproportionate number of incarceration and transition facilities.
• The current Draper site should have been considered, on the same criteria and assessment basis, as the proposed new locations.
• The projected economic benefits from moving the prison should have been offset by the amount of anticipated economic growth that would occur within the State regardless of whether or not the prison is relocated.
To read a detailed analysis of why the prison should not be located in Salt Lake City, please visit Prison Location
