The Detention Center
Utah County Jail
- Operated byUtah County Sheriff's Office, Corrections Division
- AddressCounty Security Center, 3075 North Main, Spanish Fork, UT 84660
- Population handledBooking Bureau maintains charges/warrants/holds for approximately 800 prisoners, with 200+ cases handled daily; books and releases 28,000+ prisoners a year
- Booking Bureau budgetApproximately $2.7 million per year; staff of 34 supervised by a Lieutenant and four Sergeants
- Judicial Support BureauUtah County Health and Justice Building, 151 South University Ave. Suite 3110, Provo, UT 84601
- Corrections Division CommanderChief Deputy Shawn Chipman
Source: Utah County Sheriff's Office — Corrections Division / Booking · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✗How to post bond — not published
- ✓Phone, video and commissary rates
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsApproximately 800 prisoners (per the Booking Bureau's published population figure; not stated as a rated bed count)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Mike Smith
- Runs the jailYes — "overseeing the County Jail" is listed among the Sheriff's statutory duties
- Association roleImmediate Past President, Utah Sheriffs' Association
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Utah County Government — Elected Officials (Sheriff Mike Smith) · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Utah judges are appointed by the Governor through a nominating commission, then face retention election. They are state judicial officers, not county officials. The Fourth Judicial District covers Juab, Millard, Utah, and Wasatch Counties.
Fourth District Court — Presiding Judge
- Sean M. Petersen
Justice Court
- Not found — no judge named on the county's Justice Court oversight page
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-24
The County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
- The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Video visitation ('Video Connect') is billed at $0.19/minute plus taxes/fees, published on the Jail Visitation FAQ page.
- The 'Arrested Person Search' tool (Inmate Search) functions as a public current-custody roster, searchable by name or arrest date.
- Bail/court-date/release information is available only by calling an interactive voice response line (801-851-4200), not via a published web page, so 'bond_info' is marked no.
- The $2.7 million figure is the Booking Bureau's own operating budget specifically, not the full jail/Corrections Division budget; the general County Adopted Budgets page is cited for the 'budget' check.
- Utah County is governed by a three-member Board of County Commissioners serving staggered 4-year terms: Skyler Beltran (Chair, oversees the County Justice Court among other departments), Amelia Powers Gardner, Brandon Gordon.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Utah County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.
Names verified 2026-08-24 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered