J 4: JUSTICE SYSTEM ACCOUNTABILITY

Increase the Justice System's accountability and provide adequate resources to support Utah' s criminal and juvenile justice system.

Other Information:

• The number of full-time law enforcement officers increased 40.7% statewide between 1992 and 2001. In 2001, there were 4,048 full-time law enforcement officers. • The number of jail officers in Utah increased 13.6% between 1992 and 2001. In 2001, there were 611 jail officers in Utah. • The operational budgets for the primary state justice agencies (courts, public safety, adult corrections, and youth corrections) has doubled since FY1994. This resulted in increased capacity for handling both adult and juvenile offenders in Utah. • Correctional capacity, in terms of juvenile and adult beds and placement slots, has nearly doubled since FY1994. • In FY2001, Utah's District Courts disposed of 69,242 criminal cases. During the same fiscal year, Utah's juvenile court disposed of 51,699 juvenile cases. ADDRESSING THE ISSUE Utah is addressing justice resource issues on many fronts. In the juvenile justice system, sentencing guidelines were implemented to intervene earlier in a juvenile' s offending career in order to stem long-term offending behavior. Additionally, resources have been added in terms of beds and placement slots. In this way, there will be a decreasing number of juveniles proceeding through the system, as well as sufficient placements for those who do re-offend. A similar pattern is used in the adult correctional system. Through the Re-entry Initiative, adult offenders are prepared within the correctional institutions to succeed when released into the community. By decreasing the number of offenders coming back to prison with new offenses or parole violations, growth in prison beds can be reduced.

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