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Show Felon-Keeping Costing State One-Tnird PJIiilion Each Year .'-Imprisonment of criminals r-y: .ied- of a feianj- and committed com-mitted to the Utah State Prison Pris-on is now costing the State of Utah aproximately $13 million annually, according to a research re-search report released today by Utah Foundation, the non-profit tax research agency. The cost may be expected to increase substantially before adequate facilities fa-cilities and personnel are available avail-able for the detention and re-habilition re-habilition of individuals adjudged adjudg-ed by the courts to be dangerous danger-ous to society, the study indicates. indi-cates. Pointing out that the Sugar House prison siley and most of the buildings were given to Utah by the Federal government at the time Utah was admitted to the Union, the Utah Foundation report states that the average prison population has exceaded the rated prison capacity nearly every year since 1935. The normal capacity is stated to be 280 inmates. The average number num-ber of prisoners in 1949 is 481 and was 489 for 1948. The Utah Foundation study emphasizes the costliness of the long delay in building the new i pribon at the Pomt-ol-the Moun-i Moun-i tain location. A legislative com-irnittee com-irnittee appointed in 1929 recommended rec-ommended acquisition of the new site and construction of J prison facilities adequate for 600 prisoners at an estimateo cost of $1,250,000. It was 1937 before be-fore purchase of tne site was authorized, and actual construction construc-tion did not begin until 1940. Construction was discontinued during the wax- years. Thus, 20 years after the new project was recommended by the legislative committee appointed to study the problem, Utah has spent nearly $1V& million dollars, and another $1 million will be : needed to complete facilities, all ,of which could have been procured pro-cured for $114 million had construction con-struction been compljted during the decade p ior to the war. Expenditures for the operation opera-tion of the state prison in 1949 total $309,234, triple the amount spent in 1930 for operations when construction of a new prison pris-on was under consideration. Of the total, state appropriations provided $272,014 and $37,270 came from sales and services of prison-made goods and crops, including income from the prison pris-on sign shop, which manufactures manufac-tures motor vehicle license plates and raD.d signs for the state. Cost per inmate was $643 in 1949, compared with $568 for 1948 and S352 in 1950. Utah Foundation obtained comparative compara-tive information for 20 other states, including all of the 11 western states. Of the 20 states, Wyoming, Oregon, and Texas reported spending less per inmate in-mate than did Utah, and only Oregon had a smaller ratio of employees to inmates than does Utah. The Utah prison warden is paid a monthly salary of $345 plus his , home on the prison j grounds. Salary of the deputy warden is $280 and for the cap-itain cap-itain of the guard $290. All 'guards have received a uniform salary which was increased from i $165 per month in 1945 to $210 'prior to July of 1949, at which time the rate was raised to $250 per. month. More than half of the inmates at the prison had been convicted of previous felonies before their present sentences began, and 91 per cent had been arrested at least once previously on counts ! other than minor traffic violations. viola-tions. More than one-third of the prisoners' records show 5 or more previous arrests, with one having been arrested 60 I times, the Utah Foundation an-jalysis an-jalysis shows. Cost of operation of the Probation and Parole i board was $70,093 during the itwo years ended in June, 1949. j Utah had 446 individuals on probation in fiscal 1949 who had been convicted of felonies. 75 as many as were confined to the prison. One in. twelve violated the conditions of probation proba-tion and was committed to the prison. There were 453 inmates paroled in 1949, of which it was necessary to return 77 to 1 prison for parole violation. ! Convicted felons paid a total i of $45,388 during the 1946-43 I biennium as restitution for dam-! dam-! ages resulting from their crime land for th? support of deserted families, the Utah Foundation I study reports. |