For the Utah County Jail expansion, it's all over but the lawsuits.

Commissioners accepted a final "certificate of substantial completion" this week, even as they prepare to try and recoup at least $1 million of the more than $24 million it cost to build the facility.

They blame cost overruns on poor architecture and construction problems such as crews installing air conditioning backward.

Commissioners Steve White and Gary Anderson both say there are more than a million dollars in costs the county isn't responsible for, though they say they can't talk about possible legal remedies.

They're mostly happy with the jail as it now stands. And though much of it remains empty for future use, Sheriff Jim Tracy is able to use some of it as a high-security area that allows inmates such as murder suspects to be placed alone in a cell.

There's also a non-denominational chapel in place that was funded with donations from local churches.

There are about 800 inmates in the jail and county officials were looking to fill up some of the extra space with federal prisoners because the federal government pays full price for inmates -- about $80 a day. While they lost a chance at a major contract to a facility in Nevada, there are 60-100 illegal immigrants from around the region being held at the jail awaiting deportation.

The jail was expanded after the sheriff found himself triple bunking inmates and turning away those with lower charges such as a class B and C misdemeanors. He also launched several programs like putting inmates on ankle monitors instead of housing them.

Those programs are going to stay in place in the hopes that the new expansion will last a full 10 years instead of the originally projected seven.

"If we opened it up, there'd be deputies down there guarding empty bunks," Tracy said.

Of course, keeping more people out of the jail helps keep the number of deputies low in a time when cuts are being made at the county because of the down economy.