Background:
The criminal justice reforms that Utah passed in 2015 through H.B. 348 were the result of an extensive planning and analysis process bringing together stakeholders across the system in 2014, in consultation with the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Public Safety Performance Project and other partners through the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI).
The format of this report changed with the 2023 report (see also last year’s 2024 report) to more directly target updates on the five original goals of JRI (outlined in CCJJ’s 2014 Justice Reinvestment Report), as required in the modifications of CCJJ’s statute in 63M-7-204(1)(w). In addition to the required content, this report continues to provide updates on key prison measures and more general crime indicator trends that demonstrate more broad and indirect effects of reform efforts, but more extensive background on the reforms and additional measures can be found in past reports (see 2020, 2021, and 2022 annual reports).
As with previous reports, the reader can navigate within the report using internal links (shaded in gray), and there are external links provided to other reports, legislation, and other useful information (blue underlined text). The content of the report is organized around the five original goals of JRI, and each section provides important updates and data trends relevant to that particular goal, along with linked visuals (i.e., figures) to illustrate the updates, found at the end of the report:
Goal Update 1: Ensure Oversight and Accountability
Goal Update 2: Focus Prison Beds on Serious and Violent Offenders
Goal Update 3: Strengthen Probation and Parole Supervision
Goal Update 4: Improve and Expand Treatment and Reentry Services
Goal Update 5: Support Local Corrections Systems
Other Updates: General Crime Indicators and Broad Effects of Reform
- The Public Safety Portal (PSP/H.B. 403 Project Website) is currently under development in a test environment. This will serve as a central data hub within CCJJ’s website, offering interfaces for viewing statutory reports and other data (dashboards), and for submitting data.
- County Jail Data Reporting: This dashboard will have interactive displays showing trends in jail bookings, average daily population (ADP), and other important data reported to CCJJ by the county jails (17-22-32).
- Department of Corrections Data: This dashboard will also have interactive displays showing trends in prison admissions and releases, prison ADP, and information on supervision (parole and probation) populations, and will incorporate many of the figures in this report associated with Goal 2 and Goal 3 below. In the meantime, other sources of regularly updated data on the prison and supervision populations have recently been developed, including the Board of Pardons and Parole dashboard.
- Prosecutor Data Reporting: This dashboard will show trends in referrals from law enforcement, case counts, and actions taken by prosectors (including filing, declination, and diversion), and other important data reported to CCJJ by the prosecutors (63M-7- 213).
- The prison population remains in line with initial projections made prior to the implementation of the reforms
- After over a decade of increases, the parole population decreased for three consecutive years before a slight increase in FY2025
- After reaching highs in FY2019, the number of justice involved clients served for both substance use disorder (SUD) and mental health (MH) treatment through state-exclusive funding sources remained at lower levels in FY2025, despite recent increases in MH numbers.
- The original intent of criminal justice reform was to support local corrections systems, through law changes and increased funding and services, to prevent or relieve any undue burden on the local system of jails and other services. Using a combination of data sources, the reforms do not appear to have increased the number of offenders in county jails across the state, compared to pre-reform levels
- Rates of reported crime in Utah, including both property and violent crimes, declined in 2024 (calendar year) for the fourth straight year after a spike in 2020 associated with the pandemic and social unrest, and are now below pre-pandemic levels