Purgatory Correctional Facility is the county jail of Washington County,

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. Also known as the Washington County Jail, it is located near

St. George, Utah St. George or Saint George is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Utah, United States. Located in southwestern Utah on the Arizona border, it is the principal city of the St. George metropolitan statistical area (MSA). The cit ...

, at Purgatory Flats, hence its unusual name. Technically lying within the borders of

Hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its ...

, the facility is about halfway between downtown St. George and downtown Hurricane at Harrisburg Junction (the junction of

I-15 I15 may refer to: * Interstate 15, a north–south Interstate Highway in the United States of America * Polikarpov I-15, a Soviet fighter aircraft * I15 (band), a band * , of the Imperial Japanese Navy * Älvsborg Regiment The Älvsborg Regiment ...

and SR-9). It has a semi-rural setting in the shadow of a steep ridge, part of the Virgin Rivers

anticline In structural geology, an anticline is a type of Fold (geology), fold that is an arch-like shape and has its oldest Bed (geology), beds at its core, whereas a syncline is the inverse of an anticline. A typical anticline is convex curve, c ...

. The

Virgin River The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The river is about long.Calculated with Google Maps and Google Earth It was designated Utah's first wild and scenic river in 2009, during the ...

flows north of the ridge. Purgatory Correctional Facility has a typical occupancy of 400 to 500 inmates, with 150 employees and a full-time medical clinic. The estimated cost of the facility, completed in 1998, was $11,570,000. It was designed by the architectural firm of Gillies, Stransky, Brems & Smith of

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

. Situated on South 5200 West Road, the Correctional Facility is located within a growing business park area, including the Fairgrounds Industrial Park and the Quail Creek Industrial Park. Tenants nearby include the Washington County Department of Motor Vehicles; to the north is Washington County Regional Fair Park which includes Dixie Downs, a horse racing track, and the Southern Utah Shooting Sports Park. Also nearby,

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

has a large distribution center. In order to cut its operating costs, as well as to reduce

recidivism Recidivism (; from 'recurring', derived from 'again' and 'to fall') is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been trained to Extinction (psycholo ...

, in 2008 the Sheriff's Office began charging inmates to stay, a fee no longer assessed with very few exceptions allowing it, at the jail which houses incarcerated males and females. In 2005 it had a recidivism rate of 75 percent. The Purgatory jail made headlines in 2006 when it was the scene of incarceration for

Warren Jeffs Warren Steed Jeffs (born December 3, 1955) is an American cult leader who is serving a life sentence in Texas for child sexual assault following two convictions in 2011. He is the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter ...

, following his flight from justice. He stayed there for twelve months before trial and conviction for two first degree felony counts of rape,Rachel Bell
"False Prophet: Warren Jeffs"
"Chapter 12: Warren Jeffs' Trial" at which time he was transferred to Utah State Prison.

References

External links

Human Flower Project: Flowers in Purgatory
{{Coord, 37, 09, 30, N, 113, 24, 44, W, format=dms, display=title, type:landmark_region:US-UT Prisons in Utah Buildings and structures in Washington County, Utah 1998 establishments in Utah

References

Further reading

External links