An outspoken judge who provoked debate this summer with a doom-saying take on Utah crime was back at the podium Thursday decrying state policies that he says invite that crime.
A woefully inadequate prison system, revolving doors at local jailhouses and too few police have tagged Utah as a soft spot on the criminal circuit, according to 3rd District Judge Michael L. Hutchings.The keynote speaker at the third annual gang conference at Utah Valley State College, Hutchings said the state's deficiencies have made it a destination of choice for criminals who've found the going tough in their old stomping grounds in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Camille Anthony, executive director of the state's Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, said Utah's crime and Corrections picture is not nearly as bleak as portrayed by Hutchings.
While sharing the judge's concerns about overcrowding in the prisons and jails, Anthony said state officials have been working on it and continue to do so. Just last year, the governor and Legislature gave the juvenile justice system a $20 million funding boost, she said, adding, "That's unheard of in the nation."
And crime statistics can be misleading, she said. For example, Utah's overall crime rate appears to be higher than the national average because of higher larceny and auto theft numbers. Utah has fewer violent crimes than the rest of the nation, she said.
According to Hutchings, Utah has one of the weakest prison systems in the United States, with too few cells and too much recidivism.
Only 180 people for every 100,000 Utahns are in prison compared to the national average of 419. That's the smallest percentage of prisoners per population in the West, the judge said, indicating that many criminals on the street should actually be behind bars.
Also, Utah has the lowest prison budget in the West at 2.5 percent of the state budget. The national average is 4.5 percent.
Meanwhile, 70 percent of the prisoners paroled from Utah prisons are back in three years. That's the highest recidivism rate in America, he said. Utah also has the highest percentage - 50 percent - of parolees who end up back in prison.
"That's why I call this the weakest prison system in the western United States and possibly the United States," he said.
"But I'm not criticizing the officers running the system," Hutchings said. Rather, it's the state prison policies that are at fault.
Utah is plagued with prison overcrowding. The state needs 500 new prison beds a year but is not getting them. "The policy is we can't afford them," he said. However, doubling the size of the state's prison system would cost one-fifth what it's costing to rebuild the roads, the judge said.
"We agree in part with what Judge Hutchings said and disagree in part," said Corrections spokesman Jesse Gallegos.
"We are at an all-time high in the prison population and what the department is trying to do . . . is secure approval from the Legislature to pursue getting at 400-bed facility built," he said. "With that approval we would be able to deal with the ever-increasing population.
"The area where we do take exception with Judge Hutchings is in the area of recidivism."
Gallegos said what while about 70 percent of paroled inmates return to prison, most aren't committing new crimes. Less than 15 percent of those return because of new crimes. Most return to prison because they've violated the rules of parole, such as drug and alcohol use.
Gallegos said the prison is using innovative ways to make sure parole violators receive treatment.
Despite the prison problems, the juvenile justice system is in worse shape, Hutchings said.
Utah has a lot of "predatory" gang members who are going to group homes in rural Utah because the state doesn't have anywhere else to put them. These gang members go to local schools.
As a result of that "de facto" policy, rural communities are now experiencing gang problems, Hutch-ings said.
A better solution, the judge said, would be to export gang members to juvenile programs in other states. "Can you think of a better way to destroy a gang?"
Local governments have also been hit hard by jail overcrowding, resulting in "catch-and-release" policies that are a joke among criminals and the bane of police.
The judge said one police officer told him, "Why should I bust my butt arresting three when I can arrest one if they're just going to release them? I still get paid the same."
Another factor in low arrest rates is because Utah has the smallest percentage of police per population in the nation, according to Hutchings. The loss of efficiency is not unexpected. "How low will it go before we get a turnaround?" he asked.
He was also critical of Utah's approach to drug-related crime. During the past four years, drug crimes in the state have climbed from 20 percent of the total case load in the courts to 45 percent.
"Where's the leadership? Who's providing leadership here?" he asked.
As a judge, he sees a lot of suspects who admit they are stealing for drugs. Yet alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs in Utah are shutting down. Drug treatment programs have a seven-month waiting list, longer than a misdemeanor sentence.
Drug dealers are considered nonviolent criminals, even though violence often follows in their wake. So when drug dealers are caught they are commonly booked, then released. When they fail to show at their court appearance, the cycle continues: They're arrested, booked, then released. Many of them are illegal aliens from Mexico, and only about 10 percent of those captured are deported, he said.
Drug crimes are also federal offenses, but only about 5 percent are prosecuted, he said. Hutchings said the U.S. Attorney's Office - probably on a directive from Washington, D.C. - doesn't go after low-level drug dealers. And they won't release the federal guidelines on who they will prosecute, Hutchings said.
Utah's "drug friendly" attitude has allowed this atmosphere, he said, calling Utah a "drug Disneyland."
Hutchings said, taken together, the policy deficiencies deserve much of the blame for Utah's higher crime rate.
Where crime is down elsewhere, it's up in Utah, he said. In 1995, Utah was 10th in the nation in the number of crimes per 100,000 population, ahead of such states as New Jersey, New York and California, he said.
Property crime and rape is higher in Utah than the national average, while violent crime is lower, but increasing, Hutchings added. Also, a woman is twice as likely to be raped in Utah, Salt Lake and Davis counties than in New York City. Forcible rape is dropping, but not as much as the national average.
Utah's murder rate (at three per 100,000 people) is staying constant, but nationally the rate is dropping. And the Beehive State's violent crime rate, while lower than the national average, is rising while the national average is dropping, he said.
Aggravated assault, burglary, robbery - all are up in Utah, while dropping nationally.
Meanwhile, arrests are down as crime increases. Crime clearance rates - a crime that ends in an arrest - have dropped from 29 percent in 1993 to 20 percent in 1996. "Utah's (arrest rates) are going into the toilet," he said.
Hutchings called for the appointment of a state "crime czar" to work with all law enforcement jurisdictions in a combined attack on crime. He also proposed the formation of an independent think tank to address the state's crime problems.