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 report that this group produced included many recommendations that formed the basis for the reforms passed the following year, and focused on five main goals:
- Focus prison beds on serious and violent offenders;
- Strengthen probation and parole supervision;
- Improve and expand reentry and treatment services;
- Support local corrections systems; and
- Ensure oversight and accountability (e.g., training, data).
While many focused on the much-publicized changes to drug statutes and the push for more substance use disorder and mental health treatment in the offender population over incarceration, there were other widespread changes throughout the system, including to criminal sentencing, community supervision, parole decisions, and reentry planning and support. As might be expected with such wide-ranging reforms to a complex system, some aspects have shown success, while others could use some renewed attention and changes in focus. As these reforms pass the five-year mark, it is hard to overstate the massive undertaking this process has been. Utah is one of many states who have participated in JRI, and other states (e.g., Georgia, Oregon, etc.) often return to their reform legislation (sometimes annually) to make changes and improvements. Utah has made other recent changes consistent with JRI (i.e., in indigent defense, pretrial reform, supervision length guidelines, and juvenile justice reform), but this five-year anniversary is a great time to take stock and make the necessary improvements to the original legislation in order for the spirit of the reforms to be more effective and sustainable.
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