The Utah State Prison was built on land that was considered worthless [“Imprisoned Profit,” March 7, City Weekly]. Then the Mormon church builds a temple close to the worthless land. Not too many years later, the talk starts about moving the prison. Coincidence?
Now the worthless land is worth a lot of money, because of the location of the nearby Mormon temple.
The community leaders in Draper want a stake in developing the land, if the prison is moved. What I see is Mormons getting their way again. They will buy the land and develop it the way they want. Everything they want, they get, one way or another.
I think as taxpayers, the citizens of Utah should get to vote yes or no on moving the prison. I am sick and tired of a few people deciding things for all of us.
People of Utah, when will you wake up and smell the coffee? We are being taken for a ride that will cost us taxpayers a lot of money. The Mormon church can afford to build big fancy temples. Let the church pay for a new prison if they want it moved.
When the temple was being built in Draper, my late husband and I talked about this very thing. It is happening just the way we thought it would.
We taxpayers pay for inmates’ keep, which is $30,000 a year per inmate. Why should we have to pay for a new building to put them in?
Hope this will wake up the people in this state who are too blind to see what is going on.
DEANNA STEADMAN
Kearns