State
Activities & Resources
Utah
Serious and Violent Offender Reentry
Initiative Grantees | Other OJP
Activities & Resources | State
Agency Contacts | Local Organizations & Resources
Serious and Violent Offender Reentry
Initiative Grantees
Utah Department of Corrections (Amount $1,000,000*)
The Reentry Initiative at the Utah Department of Corrections has
improved the supervision of offenders in the Salt Lake Adult
Probation and Parole region. This improvement has had a direct
result on public safety and the successful mandate of helping
offenders become law-abiding citizens. Components of the Utah
Department of Corrections Reentry Initiative include the following:
Salt Lake Transitional Housing Center
This faith-based facility is located in the heart of downtown
Salt Lake City at 282 South 500 East. The Salvation Army was forced
to close their substance abuse treatment program in October 2002
due to shrinking operational funds. The Utah Department of Corrections
immediately negotiated to form a partnership with the Salvation
Army to convert their facility into a 50-bed Transitional Housing
Center that would be used for offenders in need of affordable housing
and support services. The Salvation Army offered a generous lease
agreement and free support services (e.g., counseling, job placement,
and daily meals) for the offenders. The Utah Department of Corrections
will provide staffing for 24-hour supervision, free substance abuse
treatment, life-skills programming, cognitive restructuring, and
case management. Primary candidates for placement include offenders
with minimal arrest or drug use histories. Before the Salt Lake
Transitional Housing Center opened, there was no facility designed
solely for offender transition placement. In the past, offenders
were placed at one of four halfway houses and the Lone Peak correctional
facility. Placement was allowed only if a bed was available for
the offender.
Community Review Board
The Community Review Board (CRB) is an advisory board of citizens
that, in conjunction with professional probation and parole staff,
helps supervise offenders. Board members are appointed to serve
by the CRB Coordinator; the Board consists of up to eight members.
The primary purpose of a CRB is to review noncriminal violations
of supervision conditions and recommend appropriate actions for
violators. Community Board members are provided with an opportunity
to confront offenders about their behavior and create community-driven
consequences for violations of probation/parole.
Corrections staff are in the initial stages of developing a CRB
in the West Valley/Midvale area. Before the establishment of CRB,
citizens of the community were not involved in recommending sanctions.
Police Review Board
The Police Review Board (PRB) tries to increase an offender’s
accountability to Adult Probation & Parole (AP&P), the
community, and local law enforcement agencies by adopting a proactive
approach for reviewing the reintegration of serious offenders being
paroled. The offender has the option of allowing AP&P to assist
with support services. Offenders selected for support services
include those who were recently paroled and whose crimes involve
violence, weapons offenses, gang affiliations, sexual predation,
or the production of methamphetamines. In addition, local law enforcement
can request that a parolee be allowed to participate. Offenders
are required to appear before PRB in person. Before PRB, no board
existed to address serious offenders being released back into the
community. Past experience has shown that with little available
support, many of these offenders eventually returned to criminal
activity.
Offender/Family Orientation
Offender orientation was developed to increase offender awareness
of the expectations of AP&P and both the standard and special
conditions of the probation or parole. Offenders are instructed
by their agent to attend and are strongly encouraged to bring family
members, a support system, and/or significant others. Orientation
attendance typically includes 40–50 offenders, in addition
to their family members and/or support system. During orientation,
the following areas are addressed: standard and special conditions
of probation/parole, office reporting, field visits to the residence,
and employment. A question-and-answer period is offered at the
end.
Rapid Transition Caseloads
A newly formed committee has been established to provide recommendations
regarding parolee supervision and the completion of Pre-Sentence
Investigation Reports (PSI) for Class “A” misdemeanors.
These misdemeanor cases would be placed on Rapid Transition Supervision,
which would focus on parolees completing minimum requirements and
successful termination. These recommendations would provide each
region with the following misdemeanor case management options:
- After successfully completing 6 months to 1 year of
supervision, a request for early termination would be submitted
to the courts.
- If, during supervision, the offender demonstrated
a lack of compliance, the offender could be moved to a higher
supervision standard.
- AP&P continues to provide the court with sufficient
information for sentencing purposes by using a modified PSI format.
AP&P currently supervises more than 3,000 Class “A” and “B” offenders.
A percentage of these offenders could possibly be terminated with
the courts’ approval. Presently, AP&P supervises nearly
1,300 felony or parole offenders who also have active Class “A” or “B” cases
attached to that supervision.
Transition Agents On release from prison, offenders are immediately assigned to
one of seven agents, depending on the location of offenders’ primary
residence. Transition supervision averages 45–60 days and
consists of three phases:
- Phase One: The offender attends orientation class, is
referred to Day Reporting Center (DRC), and is assigned classes
on a parole date or a referral is made to an outside treatment
provider based on an order of the Board of Pardons. The offender
is required to report to AP&P offices one or two times per
week, and one field visit per week is conducted at the offender’s
residence.
- Phase Two: In order to advance to Phase Two, offenders
need to be employed (verification required), be involved in
treatment/programming, and be in compliance with office reporting
and field visit guidelines.
In this phase, office reporting is reduced to once per week
and in some cases once every 2 weeks.
- Phase Three: In order to be transferred from the transition
caseload to regular supervision, offenders need to have verifiable
employment, regularly attend treatment sessions, report to AP&P
offices, and have successful field visits to their residence
with no violations.
Before the development of the Transition Caseload, offenders typically
did not have any contact with their assigned parole agent for 30–45
days after the initial day of reporting. Office and field visits
only occurred once a month, and violations were not dealt with
in a timely manner.
Day Reporting Center
During the first critical few months of supervision, DRC staff
assist offenders by referring them to appropriate resources and
tracking their attendance and progress in classes. The following
steps are taken by DRC staff to guide offenders:
- Each DRC staff member is assigned to a Transition
Agent, and both serve in dual supervision roles (one is the supervising
agent and the other is assigned to track programming progress).
- The offender is referred and enrolled in DRC psycho-educational
classes on his or her parole date.
- DRC staff act as liaison/information source for offenders
during their placement at the DRC.
- DRC staff randomly administer urinalysis tests to
all offenders with a drug abuse history.
- DRC staff develop and implement “Helping Women
in Recovery,” a programming component specifically designed
for female offenders.
- All DRC staff are trained to teach the National Institute
of Corrections’ Life Skills course. This is an integrated,
cognitive behavior change program that is implemented three nights
a week at DRC.
- DRC staff immediately contact offenders who have a
class absence.
- A mandatory supervision review is conducted with offenders
and DRC staff members after three absences.
- DRC staff input F-Track entries to update the Transition
Agent on an offender’s performance, absences, and areas
of concern.
DRC currently serves 364 offenders. Staff also are involved with
the Salt Lake Transitional Housing Center 2 days a week for 12-hour
shifts. This involvement allows offenders to be immediately referred
for programming and expedites their onsite orientation. Local contact: Belle Brough, 801–545–5707.
Utah Department of Human Services, Division of Youth Corrections
(Amount: $1,000,000*)
The Utah Division of Youth Corrections will strengthen the existing
reentry programs in northern and central Utah and establish the
Utah Community Aftercare Program for offenders from southern and
rural Utah. The Utah Community Aftercare Program will initially
be a day treatment program that will evolve into a 24-hour residential
program by year 2. The program’s goal is to return juvenile offenders
to the community as productive, competent, and healthy citizens.
This goal will be accomplished by redesigning Utah’s reentry service
delivery system to provide for wraparound reentry and community
integration services to high-risk young offenders, developing reentry
plans for all young offenders, ensuring public safety by closely
monitoring offenders and implementing appropriate graduated sanctions
for noncompliance or criminal behavior, increasing the number of
parolees who obtain and hold jobs, increasing the number of parolees
who successfully reintegrate to their home communities, involving
young offenders in community service projects, and enhancing partnerships
among government agencies and community organizations. Utah’s redesigned
reentry program will target all juvenile parolees ages 14–21 under
the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Court and in the custody of the
Division of Youth Corrections. Up to 12 months of followup will
be provided once parole is completed.
Local contact: John LaCognata, 801–426–7444.
[Asterisks indicate award amounts that are subject to final
review.]
Back to top
Other OJP Activities & Resources
Click on the name of the office or bureau to find out about its
state activities and resources:
Back to top
State Agency Contacts
Click on the agency name to link to its Web site:
Back to top
Local Organizations & Resources
If you know of a local organization or resource that should
be added here, please e-mail us at askreentry@ncjrs.org. Be sure to write "Local Organizations & Resources" in
the subject line. Provide a brief one-paragraph description of
the organization or resource and include any appropriate contact
information (name of organization or resource, name of contact
person, mailing address, phone number, fax number, e-mail address,
and URL).
Back to State Activities & Resources
U.S. Department of Justice | Office of Justice Programs
Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | FOIA |
