This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Gov. Gary Herbert said Thursday that meeting Utah's incarceration and rehabilitation needs, not economic benefits, should drive the decision on where to rebuild the state prison — and that includes the possibility of leaving it in Draper.
"The motivation behind moving the prison ought not just be the economic-development aspects of freeing up that land," Herbert said Thursday during his monthly KUED news conference. "The primary reason is: We need a new prison. So the question is: Why do we need a new prison? Well, the one we currently have is obsolete. It doesn't function very well.
"The economic benefit," he added, "is just more gravy on the potential for moving the prison."
The Prison Relocation Commission appears committed to moving the prison out of Draper and is considering four sites — in Salt Lake City, Eagle Mountain, Fairfield or Grantsville — for the new location.
Herbert said the current Draper prison is not conducive to rehabilitating inmates and reducing recidivism. If rebuilding there is the best solution — as grass-roots groups from the four sites under consideration have urged — then that is where it should be.
"What we don't want to have is a new prison that is a Band-Aid approach at the end of the day," he said. "If we're going to build a new prison, let's build a new prison that will serve us for the next 50 to 100 years."
Rep. Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville and co-chairman of the relocation commission, said Thursday it would be inefficient and costly to rebuild in Draper, and would take the state far longer to get a modern prison.
"I'm confident," he said, "that we'll find a place that is better than Draper for it."
But Erica Groneman, an opponent of the prison move who is part of the No Prison in Eagle Mountain group, argued that if this is really about helping inmates, then it makes sense to keep them close to the volunteers, hospitals and courts.
"It is a risk to move [the prison] too far away," she said. "If this is really about helping the prisoners, we need to find a central location ... like Draper."
On other issues, Herbert said he hopes the U.S. Supreme Court rules against the Obama administration and strikes down a portion of the Affordable Care Act that lets the federal government run health insurance exchanges.
The justices will rule in the King v. Burwell case before they adjourn at month's end.
"If King prevails, which I hope it does," Herbert said, "then I think it will allow other states to have a block-grant approach, more flexibility and take those taxpayer dollars that are being sent to Washington, send them back to the states and let them develop their own plan."
The Republican governor has been meeting with legislative leaders to try to negotiate an agreement on how to use Medicaid dollars to expand health coverage to tens of thousands of low-income Utahns. Herbert acknowledged that one of the wild cards is the Burwell case.
The governor avoided taking a position on whether the state should help pay the legal fees for San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman, who has been convicted in federal court of trespassing when he led protesters on all-terrain vehicles down a road in Recapture Canyon that had been closed by the Bureau of Land Management.
State Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, has been advocating for taxpayers to help with Lyman's legal fees.
Lyman is scheduled to be sentenced July 15.
Herbert said he "understands the frustration" that residents, particularly those in southern Utah, feel when it comes to access to rural roads and public lands. He also said it shouldn't have taken the BLM eight years to decide whether the trail in Recapture Canyon should be open or closed.
"That being said, I think there needs to be a connection, if we're going to use taxpayer dollars, to a state purpose."
The state could analyze whether the BLM should close the road — that could serve a state purpose — but Herbert said he would entrust that decision to the attorney general's office and legislative attorneys.
"I'm not saying we should pay for his appeal," Herbert said. "I'm saying we should follow the law and I'm saying there needs to be a nexus."
If closing or opening the road raises a significant state interest, he said, then maybe the state should be involved.
Finally, Herbert said he doesn't know enough about allegations that state Rep. Justin Miller, D-Salt Lake City, stole $30,000 from the campaign account of Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams to say whether the freshman lawmaker should resign his legislative seat.
"Whether he should step down or not is between himself and his constituents who elected him," the GOP governor said, "and to some extent the Democratic Party."
Twitter: @RobertGehrke
Reporter Matt Canham contributed to this story.