Our new report examines the long‑term impacts of Utah’s 2015 effort to constrain a growing prison population, highlighting where progress was sustained, where challenges emerged, and why implementation and system capacity shaped results.

The Crime and Justice Institute (CJI), with support from Arnold Ventures, has released a new report examining how outcomes from Utah’s justice system legislation (HB 348) have developed over the past decade. Policy to Practice: Ten Years of HB348 in Utah analyzes long‑term trends in incarceration, supervision, treatment access, and system capacity to understand how outcomes changed after policy passage, and what it took to sustain progress.

Drawing on ten years of quantitative data and extensive stakeholder perspectives, the examination shows that while some efforts delivered durable reductions in incarceration, other intended impacts diminished over time as population growth, rising behavioral health needs, and subsequent policy decisions reshaped Utah’s justice system.

Summary

Enacted in 2015, HB 348 was intended to slow projected prison growth, control corrections costs, and improve public safety by prioritizing incarceration for higher‑risk individuals and strengthening community‑based supervision, treatment, and reentry supports. Ten years later, the report finds that these goals produced mixed results.

Some policy changes led to sustained improvements, particularly where paired with years of implementation effort and practice change. In other areas, outcomes shifted or diminished over time as population growth, rising behavioral health needs, uneven system capacity, and subsequent policy decisions reshaped how the justice system functioned in practice.

Overall, the report shows that long‑term outcomes were driven not by statutory change alone, but by the degree to which policies were implemented, resourced, adjusted, and sustained across a complex and evolving system.

The key findings below describe how these patterns manifested across specific policy areas and measurable outcomes over the ten‑year period.

Key Findings

• Incarceration for drug possession declined dramatically: Annual prison admissions for drug possession fell from 84 people in 2015 to 6 people in 2025, reflecting a sustained shift away from incarceration following HB 348.
• Revocations decreased after extended implementation support: Probation and parole revocations declined 21% since 2023, following years of supervision practice changes, technical assistance, and policy refinement.
• Treatment capacity lagged behind policy goals: Participation in treatment courts declined 40% since 2019, limiting the reach of community‑based alternatives despite improved completion rates among participants.
• Time under correctional control increased in recent years: Average time under the supervision of the Board of Pardons and Parole increased 19% between 2022 and 2025, suggesting that later policy and practice decisions outweighed earlier sentencing changes.
• Earned time credits were used less often over time: Since 2016, 36% fewer people earned sentence credits, and total days reduced declined 47%, reducing their impact on length of stay.
• Behavioral health access improved, but unmet needs remained high: While access to treatment increased for justice‑involved populations, nearly half of adults with mental illness and 71% of adults with substance use disorder statewide did not receive treatment in 2023.

Why This Matters

Utah’s experience demonstrates that real, lasting change in justice systems is not a single moment, but a long‑term process shaped by implementation, capacity and commitment, and ongoing policy choices. Without ongoing examination, it is difficult for decision-makers to understand whether policies and outcomes are delivering lasting public safety benefits or where adjustments are needed to preserve gains.

The Utah report shows how early progress can be maintained in some areas while eroding in others, especially as system pressures and population needs change. These findings underscore the importance of continued learning, adaptation, and stewardship well beyond the point of policy passage.

Read the full report and Key Takeaways.

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