Utah has one of the lowest prison incarceration rates in the nation — only six states have lower rates — but it’s a different story with county jails, where Utah’s incarceration rate is the 15th-highest in the nation.
Part of this disparity is due to the criminal justice reform enacted in 2015 designed to keep people convicted of nonviolent crimes — mostly drug offenses — out of prison. That goal is being met, with a 12 percent drop in Utah’s prison population from 2014 to 2016, according to research from the nonpartisan Utah Foundation. But lesser charges and sentences for these offenders have translated into an increase in the jail population, up 6 percent in that two-year period.
A Utah Foundation report issued Thursday said one of the significant issues with this shift is the dearth of drug-treatment programs in many jails. Only 14 of the 26 county jails have substance-abuse programs.
