Publications

Background: Over the last two decades, the forfeiture process in Utah has gone through various procedural changes along with changes to how funding is to be allocated and used. During the 2015 Utah General Legislative Session, Senate Bill 52 was passed creating additional reporting requirements for state and federal forfeitures. During the 2017 Utah General Legislative Session, Senate Bill 70

Introduction Over the last five years, Utah has analyzed its criminal justice system and focused considerable attention on the drivers of its prison population. Now, the areas of probation and parole are taking a more prominent role in reform conversations as stakeholders recognize the impact that supervision populations have on their prison populations as well as in the community. This

Overview: Introduced in December of 2019, the Davis County jail diversion program aims to provide an alternative to traditional arrest or citation for adults who have engaged in certain lower-level drug crimes and misdemeanor offenses. Instead of traditional paths, the program allows referral to appropriate treatment services to avoid the stigmatizing and often costly criminal justice track. Research Question: Critics

Overview: Introduced in December of 2019, the Davis County jail diversion program aims to provide an alternative to traditional arrest or citation for adults who have engaged in certain lower-level drug crimes and misdemeanor offenses. Instead of traditional paths, the program allows referral to appropriate treatment services to avoid the stigmatizing and often costly criminal justice track. Critics of jail

The work of the Utah Juvenile Justice Working Group laid the foundation for research-based, data-driven policy changes. Moving forward, the state could benefit from making efforts to: 1) understand and adopt research-based approaches to generate positive outcomes for youths diverted from a petition via an NJA, and 2) ensure that NJA practices are implemented with substantial fidelity and quality. As

This 5th annual report provides an update on juvenile justice reform policies that were passed in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 and subsequent years. Policy changes focused on preventing deeper involvement in the juvenile justice system for lower level youths, protecting the community by focusing system resources on youths who pose the highest risk to public safety and improving outcomes through

Summary: Improving outcomes for individuals under correctional supervision is a core focus for criminal justice researchers and professionals. Here we analyze a cohort of over 500 females on parole in Utah between 2013 and 2017, using time-to-event analysis. We find that risk factors for females on parole are different when the outcome variable denotes a technical violation versus a new

Introduction & Background: The use of actuarial risk and needs screenings and assessments is becoming standard practice in the criminal justice setting. As part of broader criminal justice reform efforts, in 2015, Utah implemented a statewide risk and needs process that uses the LSI-R:SV to screen for an individual’s risk-to-reoffend when booked in any of its county jails. The LSI-R:SV

Background: The Utah Sentencing Commission:  Publishes Guidelines Advises all three branches of government on sentencing policy Conducts research Reviews and makes recommendations on legislation Tracks legislative changes to sentencing statutes Tracks judicial decisions related to sentencing issues Assists the legislature in the review and study of sentencing issues Conducts training and education statewide Responds to public comment and inquiries Below

Background: SB 205 passed by lawmakers in 2018 requires Utah jails and the Department of Corrections to report in-custody inmate deaths to the DOCJ. The report below shows information for 2013 to 2021.Access PDF Report