Criminal Justice 2021 Annual Report

January 1, 2022
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Statutory Reports

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:

  1. Focus prison beds on serious and violent offenders;
  2. Strengthen probation and parole supervision;
  3. Improve and expand reentry and treatment services;
  4. Support local corrections systems; and
  5. Ensure oversight and accountability (e.g., training, data).

While there was a focus on substance use disorder and mental health treatment in the offender population as alternatives to incarceration (as well as associated changes in drug statutes that made initial offenses less likely to result in 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 six-year mark, it is hard to overstate the massive undertaking this process has been. Utah is one of over 30 states who have participated in JRI in some form, 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 it remains important to continue making necessary improvements to the original legislation in order for the spirit of the reforms to be more effective and sustainable. This is especially important in these unprecedented times due to effects of the ongoing pandemic on the criminal justice system (and everyday life in general), and recently completed audits have provided the system with a good roadmap to move forward.

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