History of The Salt Lake County Jail
By Brent Leake / Revised & Edited by Bruce Thayne
The first permanent settlers to the Salt Lake County area arrived in July of 1847. Until 1850, a cabin was used to hold persons violating serious laws. The prisoner(s) often had a heavy ball on a short chain fastened to their ankle when not constrained in a cabin. Prior to housing law breakers, most violators received some type of corporal punishment or fine. Mormon officials handled the disciplinary actions taken against violators during the first two years of the early pioneer settlement. When a new county court house was built in Salt Lake City in 1850, a small jail was built in the basement. The capacity of the jail was not available, but I doubt it would have housed more than 10-15 prisoners. The first building built as a jail was in 1855, located next to the county court house at 268 W. 200 S. The design was Gothic and resembled a church building in appearance. A picket fence surrounded the property and there were no bars visible from the outside. The interior design was rather unusual since the cells rested on a round iron platform and had to be rotated to allow prisoners to enter or leave. The following is a description of the cells found in an August 15, 1927 Deseret News article when the jail was demolished: “The Salt Lake County’s ancient jail with a history of revolving cells which foiled breaks. Many other stories within its walls will pass out of existence within the new few weeks. During its existence, only one man was hanged there. Charley Thied was executed fro murdering his wife. There was only one entrance to each floor and the cells had to be revolved before a prisoner could be admitted or discharged from any cell. It was known as a Rotary Jail, and though prisoners were not submitted to the torture of being turned around and around until driven half mad as in an eastern center, the construction was of the same type. There were twenty cells, ten on each of two tiers. The prisoner, except when the cell was rotated to a given point, was completely surrounded by bars, without possible exit.”
The Rotary Jail was developed shortly after Civil War ended. The Pottawattamie County Jail in Iowa was similar to the rotary jail in Salt Lake County. It has been restored and is operational so tourists can see what the old style jails looked like. lOn April 12, 1909, under the urging of Sheriff Joseph E. Sharp, plans were adopted to build a new jail at 451 S. 2nd E. across from the City and County Building. The Jail was built to house 64 inmates, but was remodeled to house 150 inmates shortly after construction was completed July 7, 1910. The Sheriff had an “Official Residence” built in front of the Jail. Motorcycle and vehicle repairs were accomplished behind the jail in a large frame building. The Jail had four floors, which contained the Misdemeanor section it the basement and the felony tiers on the second and third floors. The Jail also housed female inmates, a line-up room, and a dispensary. Under Sheriff George Q. Nielsen’s administration, each of the Sheriffs were given a particular amount of money to feed the inmates, and any money left over was considered part of the Sheriff’s salary. Some of the Sheriffs grew vegetables on their own farms to use for the inmates. This practice ceased under Sheriff George Beckstead when the Deseret News reporters raised questions as to whether this practice was ethical, since it was difficult to account for the actual monies spent and received.
Trustees cooked the meals for the jail in the basement in the misdemeanant section. The soup was dispensed in stainless steel buckets, and meat and potatoes were brought up to the tiers in large steel war surplus cooking pans. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the records and identification section was housed on the second floor. Up until then, mug shorts were stored in the trunk of Capt. Ferris Andrus’ vehicle. Sheriff George Q. Nielsen started the first formalized reporting and records system in 1964. The visiting room was a large open room across the hall from the booking counter and visitors were in contact with the inmates, which created a serious security problem. A second dispatch radio transmitter was kept in the booking area and was referred to as “Control 2.” The main dispatch transmitter was in the basement of the City and County Building in the Sheriff’s main office was known as “Control 1.” Only five prisoners ever escaped from this jail and all were recovered within 72 hours. Several tried to escape but usually only made it as far as heating ducts or plumbing chases. Salt Lake City tore down their jail and headquarters building on first South and State Street in 1960, and moved to a small building at approximately 250 E. 400 South. The Police Department leased part of the second floor of the old 451 S. 2nd E. Salt Lake County jail for the city jail. A covered ramp was built from the pavement of their parking lot up to the building and was operating until the new Metro Jail was completed in 1966. They operated a City Jail with a separate booking counter on the first floor of the Metro Jail until Sheriff “Swede” Larson’s administration, when Salt Lake City got out of the jail business.
In 1950, plans for the construction of the Metro Jail and the Metropolitan Hall of Justice to house the Salt Lake county Sheriff’s Office and the Salt Lake City Police Department were approved by the County Commission. The jail was to house 300 inmates. Because of political wrangling and disputes between Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County the Metropolitan jail and complex was not started until 1961. The facility was completed in 1966 and was intended to house 311 inmates. 40 Deputies were hired by Sheriff George Beckstead at one time to operate the jail. Chief Deputy George Q. Nielsen tasked Lt. George Pazell to train them after their basic training was completed and moved the inmates from the old jail to the new Metro Jail. The jail was partially underground with three floors. There were several small courtyards with no ceilings, except for steel bars. The courtyards were used for exercise and as a place to hold inmates during cell searches. The top bars were later covered because of air-conditioning problems. Sheriff Nielsen wrote the first training manuals for the jail and Sheriff’s Office since most of the training was “on the job” from experienced officers to the new recruits. Early in Sheriff “Swede” Larson’s administration, he decided it would be more cost effective to hire “Custodial Officers” as he called them to replace deputies to operate the Metro Jail. Their pay scale was lower, which allowed him more flexibility with his budget. The command staff and Sergeants remained deputy slots.
During Sheriff Hayward’s administration, Capt Gary Deland revitalized the Custodial Officers in the jail by changing their employee status to corrections officers, raising their pay and gradually replaced some the remaining Deputy Sergeants with Corrections Officers. Capt. Deland established a greatly enhanced training section of well-qualified officers. The Lieutenants and Captains remained Deputy Sheriffs. Subsequent jail commanders increased the number of female officers, and many were promoted to management and supervisory staff. The Jail Division hired more female officers and was the first division to promote women to management and supervisory positions within the Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Hayward, District Attorney David Yocum, and Jail Commander Bruce Thayne worked with County Commission and Mayor of South Salt Lake to build the Oxbow Misdemeanant Jail at 3400 So. and 10th W. The Oxbow Jail was completed shortly after Sheriff Kennard took office in 1991. Because the Metro Jail was still extremely overcrowded, Sheriff Kennard began to plan for a new state of the art adult jail facility. Capt. Dan Ipson was promoted to Major and placed in charge of planning and overseeing the building of the new jail and Sheriff’s Headquarters building at 3300 South and 900 W.
Sheriff Kennard was able to raise Correctional Officers pay commensurate with other sworn positions in the Office. For the first time in the history of the Sheriff’s Office, Jail Captains, Lieutenants, and Sergeants were promoted from Corrections Officers ranks. lIn order to professionalize the Court Bailiffs, Sheriff Kennard changed their merit status to Correctional Officers, which will allow them to compete for supervisory positions in the Corrections field. A small number of bailiffs elected to remain Court Bailiffs.
The current Sheriff, Sheriff Winder is evaluating the Oxbow Jail and the Salt Lake County Metro Jail for future expansion in order to keep up with future jail space requirements.