A federal crime bill backed by Utah's Sen. Orrin Hatch offers states more money and more prison beds for violent criminals but would drastically change Utah's court and prison system.
The bill breezed through the Senate and is expected to go before House members in late January or early February, where it could undergo changes.The Byrd Amendment, which adds to a 1968 law, sets up a $22 billion "violent crime reduction trust fund" which includes $3 billion to build 10 regional prisons.
Seventy-five percent of those beds would be reserved for states, but only if they meet four criteria. Utah currently meets only one of the criteria.
"This would in effect almost force us to become a determinant sentencing state to qualify for the federal money," Heather Nelson Cooke, director of the state's Sentencing Commission.
The conditions on the federal money include requiring state's to enact a truth-in-sentencing law, requiring any person convicted of a violent felony with a maximum sentence of more than five years to serve 85 percent of the sentence ordered.
Utah's current sentencing scheme is indeterminate, which gives a great deal of discretion to a sentencing judge and the state's Board of Pardons and Parole. Corrections officials said in 1992 the average violent offender in Utah served 46.25 months. Had the amendment been in place, the 1992 average would have been 51 months.
Though only a few more months in prison, that change would have cost the Corrections Department more than $1.8 million.
Salt Lake Police Chief Ruben Ortega said law enforcement supports the longer and tougher sentences.
"There's a sentiment in the community that maybe it's time we got tough on some of these criminals," Ortega said, citing the recent kidnapping and murder of Californian Polly Klaas.
Corrections Director Lane McCotter said his department supports the idea of longer sentences but is skeptical about how much funding will be available.
"We support it ideologically," McCotter said, "but there is a significant cost. All we're trying to say is this is the corrections side of this bill we feel hasn't been taken care of."
Other members said Utah has one of the most respected and fair criminal justice systems in the country and would hesitate before giving up the indeterminate sentencing.
Pete Haun, a member of the Board of Pardons, told the commission that inmates overwhelmingly prefer determinate sentencing.
"Indeterminate sentencing places the responsibility on them to show they're not a risk to the community (before being released)," he said.
Secondly, states must enact pretrial detention laws similar to the federal system. Federal prisoners are locked up based on "dangerousness" rather than risk of flight, according to the Corrections Department.
The impact of this would be felt more at the county level as most pretrial detainees are housed in county jails. But corrections officials say they also use the jails as overflow when the prison population exceeds capacity.
McCotter said the prisons are now at 99 percent capacity. "When we exceed that for more than 45 days, state law requires an emergency release," he said. "I think that's an absolute disaster. I don't want any part of it."
The length of sentences would also be increased by the third criteria. States must ensure sentences for murder, firearms offenses where death or bodily injury occur, sex offenses and child abuse are "at least as long" as federal requirements.
The only criteria Utah meets is victims rights and allowing them to have an impact on sentencing. Corrections officials feel the changes would also require states to change their laws as the federal government changes its laws.
"Utah's criminal law would, in essence, be written by Congress as long as the state participated in the regional prison program outlined in the Byrd amendment," an analysis written by corrections staff said.
Camille Anthony, director of the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, met with Hatch's staff to discuss some of the problems Utah would have in participating.
"There are some wonderful aspects to the crime bill . . . great things for the community, but there are some concerns," Anthony said. States would also lose federal money, such as Pell grants, that many inmates depend upon to attend college while in prison.
Commission members plan to evaluate the bill individually and try to meet with Utah's representatives before January.