SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Utah’s prison is on track to run out of beds within the next few years, raising the prospect of a “one in, one out” reality that could force officials to decide which inmates stay behind bars, and which are released.
“We’re projected to run out of prison beds and get to a 1-for-1 – ‘one in – one out’ kind of state in roughly 2028 maybe 2029,” Spencer Turley, deputy commissioner for the Utah Department of Corrections, said during a Utah Sentencing Commission meeting on Sept. 2, 2026.
Turley said that within a year or two, the state prison in Salt Lake City will be over capacity. Under that scenario, every new prison admission would require another inmate to be released to make room…