WEBER COUNTY, Utah — Weber County jail officers want to offer a high level of care and meet the needs of its people but only have dental services available two days a week.
"Everybody wants to see success out of everybody and a lot of times when we don’t have that ability, while they’re in our custody, we'd like to at least have them have a better chance when they get out to be have success in life,” said Weber County Sheriff, Ryan Arbon.
Sheriff Arbon showed FOX 13 their jail facility and said they simply don't have enough medical and mental health beds at the jail.
"When this building was first built in 2000, or first opened in 2000, there wasn’t the opioid epidemic, there wasn’t the mental health crisis that is currently across our entire country,” explained Chief Deputy for Corrections, Phillip Reese.
"A lot of facilities don’t have appropriate dental care and if you don’t have dental health, your physical health and mental health goes away, and when you’re incarcerated, you have no actual freedom to go and care for yourself, and so it’s our responsibility,” he said.
The current medical area has less than ten cells, three exam rooms, and a cubicle for mental health services – all for nearly 900 people at the jail.
"On any given day through the week, we could see 80 on up to 150 patients a day, and for the area that we currently have, it’s not sufficient and it’s not working and we got to do better,” added Sheriff Arbon.
In 2023, a $98 million bond failed, which would have improved conditions at the jail.
Since then, officials have been pursuing funding to make essential improvements. They got funding from the Weber County Commission to create plans for the new medical and mental health wing.
"Currently its 48 beds is what our conceptual plans are showing. This will include not just the beds in the rooms, but it will include a clinic and an infirmary to help with those challenges,” added Sheriff Arbon.
While all these plans are in motion, Sheriff Arbon won't know if they will be called on to be an ICE detention center.
"We have not seen any plans, there's been no official word,” said Sheriff Arbon.
The Weber County Sheriff's Office expects to have finalized plans to build the new medical and mental health space by the end of 2025.
