In the decade prior to Utah’s engagement with the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI), the state’s prison population grew 18% and was on track to increase another 37% in the next 20 years at a cost of $500 million.
In 2015, Utah lawmakers passed House Bill 348, JRI legislation intended to reduced recidivism and hold individuals accountable while controlling the state’s prison spending.
Two years after implementing HB 348, Utah’s prison population fell 12%, and the state diverted more people convicted of nonviolent offenses to alternatives to incarceration.