A House Committee Tuesday approved two anti-gang bills, one of which would appropriate $370,000 to a gang intervention program in the schools that has proved successful at West High School.
Rep. Phil Uipi, R-Salt Lake, one of only two ethnic minorities in the Legislature, said the program is working and very valuable. "We have to attack this gang problem today. We can pay for it up front or pay for it later by building prisons."Rep. Ray Short, R-Salt Lake, is the sponsor of several anti-gang bills that grew out of a yearlong task force that he co-chaired.
On Friday, the House is scheduled to take up a number of anti-gang bills.