It is no exaggeration to say that a decision made Thursday by the Utah State Records Committee will almost certainly lead to the deaths of more inmates in the state’s county jails.
It would have been much better if the members of the panel had ruled in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah and Disability Law Center in their claim that the set of standards used by the state’s 25 county jails — as well as reports on how well those standards are kept — should be public. If the Davis County Sheriff’s Office and the State Sheriffs Association didn’t like that ruling, they could take it to court.