The Summit County Jail. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke
SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — The Summit County Jail will add a behavioral health unit to better manage mental health crises and detoxification needs, Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates told the Summit County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council on Tuesday.
The $2.7 million project will create a new wing dedicated to mental health treatment, expanding beyond the facility’s current intake capacity.
“When this building was built in ’98, these weren’t on the forefront of anybody’s mind,” Bates said. “We need it.”
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The current facility has minimal space for behavioral health emergencies — what Bates described as “just the one padded cell” in booking. The new unit will provide a dedicated space to treat individuals experiencing mental health crises or requiring detoxification when they arrive at the jail.
Without appropriate facilities, Summit County has been forced to transport some detainees to other counties for treatment.
“Any issues that we deal with, with any type of mental health stuff, we have to send to Davis County or Salt Lake County,” Bates said. “We can’t even keep them” locally.
Bates said jail leadership has pursued the behavioral health unit for three years and recently learned the project had been funded. Council members congratulated the sheriff’s office on securing the allocation.
The project aligns with the priorities Bates outlined shortly after taking office. In an October 2025 interview with TownLift, Bates told reporter Marina Knight that expanding the county’s ability to address mental health challenges within the criminal justice system was a top goal, noting the jail lacks dedicated space for people experiencing mental health crises or substance withdrawal. Bates said she wanted the ability to expand a wing so the county could “hold people who are in crisis and give them resources here, within Summit County,” adding, “Right now, we often have to rely on other counties to house those individuals.”
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