The state's sentencing commission may revisit the issue of determinate sentencing due to a recent Utah Supreme Court decision and a federal crime bill being backed by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch.
A week ago the Supreme Court decided to give convicted killer William Robert Labrum a new parole hearing and changed the way parole hearings now operate. Labrum, and all inmates at an original parole hearing, will now have access to nearly all the information in their files. The Board of Pardons uses the information to determine a parole date.The court also said the board must give enough notice to an inmate so he or she can respond to the information in the files.
"We will probably create two files," said board and commission member Pete Haun. "We'll keep the originals. The board and Corrections have united on the issue that those materials should not be given to the offender to keep."
Haun and Director of Corrections Lane McCotter said just implementing the disclosure of records would cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
Attorney Rod Snow, who represents the State Bar Association on the commission, said many problems arise from the fact that Utah uses indeterminate sentences, meaning a judge sentences a defendant to an unspecified amount of time within guidelines. For example, Labrum was sentenced to one to 15 years for manslaughter.
In its ruling the Supreme Count found that the Board of Pardons is essentially sentencing inmates - because the board determines at an original parole hearing how long an inmate will actually stay in prison.
Haun said the change would not require the board to provide attorneys to inmates at parole hearings.
Weber County prosecutor Reed Richards asked the commission to reconsider determinate sentencing, which is used in federal courts. In that case, the judge would specify the amount of time a defendant would serve, not the board.
A new federal crime bill being pushed by Hatch could also effect whether Utah converts to determinate sentencing. That bill has already passed the Senate and will go before the House in January or February.
The bill provides for regional prisons that would house state inmates under certain circumstances. Commission Director Heather Nelson Cooke said the federal government is offering billions of dollars to states that comply with certain guidelines outlined in the bill.
This money "would in effect almost force us to become a determinate-sentencing state," Cooke said.
Those requirements include that an inmate serve at least 85 percent of his or her sentence in certain cases.