SALT LAKE CITY — Behind the scenes of every court appearance for Utahns in custody is a coordinated transportation process that takes the efforts of multiple agencies.
Salt Lake County Sheriff's Deputy Asa Jett is the official at the top of the process, overseeing jail transportation at the Matheson Courthouse.
“We transport anywhere from 20 inmates, 200 inmates daily here, depending on the day Monday through Friday, there’s always something going on," he explained.
Though her department is not corrections, there is a mini jail at the courthouse where inmates wait to attend their hearings.
“Down here we do have anything from a citation all the way to capital murder, we see it all the time, the high-profile cases," Jett said. "We do have to separate some people, unfortunately, but they all go to court, they all come down, we have a large transportation team that gets them back to the [Salt Lake County Jail].”
Thanks to careful planning, most days are pretty uneventful. But Jett said sometimes things can get chaotic, especially when someone is convicted at trial.
"Emotions can be high down here, a lot of foot traffic when you have 100 plus inmates in the morning, trying to get them all to their destinations," he said. "And then plus the bailiff's team that has to come pick up so they’re asking you questions, the Sargent is asking you questions.”
For the most part, Jett and his team are in the background, making sure things move along five days a week, 52 weeks per year.
"Working down here in the holding area, it’s nice to see some of these that are incarcerated, be released and they go into their programs, they come to court weekly and we see them at the door and they’re doing a lot better," Jett reflected. "They’re excited to see us because we do treat them well down here. So it is thankless, but it’s also nice to see those that do get out..."
