Our Results
Collateral Consequences
There are many indirect consequences attached to convictions that are not explicitly expressed in criminal proceedings. These include impacts in areas such as housing or employment eligibility, registration requirements, and licensing restrictions. Our organization, in conjunction with Senator Thatcher and the Utah Sentencing Commission, brought S.B. 126 Sentencing Commission Requirements to the Legislature during the 2021 General Session. This bill requires the Utah Sentencing Commission to maintain an updated guide of collateral consequences to provide to defendants before they enter a plea.
Nonviolent Offenses
We believe that the prison bed should be reserved for violent offenders. We have worked with many legislators and other criminal justice stakeholders to promote this basic tenet of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI). As part of this effort, we have advocated for lesser incarceration terms for nonviolent convictions such as drug/alcohol offenses and white collar crimes.
Body Cameras
Our organization has advocated for reforms in body camera regulations that increase transparency in law enforcement. S.B. 210 Body Camera Amendments, passed in the 2020 General Session, clarifies when an officer may and may not deactivate their body camera. If officers fail to comply with the requirements, they must document the reason why their cameras were turned off. We also advocated for judges to be permitted to provide an adverse inference instruction to a jury when a body camera is turned off not in accordance with the requirements.
To learn more about how our organization supports transparency in law enforcement, click the link below.
Pandemic Policies in County Jails
Utah, like most other states, was given a failing grade on pandemic preparedness and reactive policies (ACLU, 2020). During the height of COVID-19, our organization was heavily involved in policy discussions on how to minimize the spread of the pandemic in Utah’s jails and prisons. We worked alongside the Utah American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to negotiate the release of low-level, non-violent offenders from the most populated jail in Utah, Salt Lake County Jail.
Self-defense
Our organization advocated for H.B. 227 Self Defense Amendments, which passed in 2021. This bill requires the court to hear evidence of justification at the preliminary hearing, which creates an additional opportunity for defendants to get their case dismissed before trial in cases of justifiable use of force.
Competency and Mental Health
Our organization has been involved in researching and reforming the justice system-mental illness overlap for decades. While we anticipate further refining this area of the law for many years to come, significant progress was made in 2023 when the Legislature passed H.B. 385 Mentally Ill Offenders Amendments. This bill expands the Guilty with a Mental Illness, or GAMI, plea to allow sentencing to be delayed for a year while defendants participate in treatment.
Conviction Integrity Review Boards
UDAA worked alongside civil liberties unions, such as Libertas and the Utah ACLU, to establish community boards in Utah that are tasked with reviewing convictions. Originally, we sought to create a board of community members capable of overturning unjust convictions, but after many compromises with stakeholders, these efforts culminated in H.B. 324 Conviction Integrity Units. Passed in 2020, this bill allows prosecuting agencies to create conviction integrity units, which are then tasked to make recommendations for conviction or sentencing changes to the prosecuting agency.
Ignition Interlock Devices
Previously, individuals charged with a DUI were subject to an automatic two-year driver’s license suspension. While this system works in theory, the reality is that most of these people continue to drive without a license. Ignition interlock devices, or IID, add more accountability to the system, ensuring that DUI offenders aren’t driving while intoxicated much more effectively than a notice in the mail that their license has been suspended.
In 2023, we advocated for H.B. 62 Driving Under the Influence Modifications, which provides the option for first time DUI offenders to install an IID in their car in lieu of automatic license suspension.
Juvenile Reforms
Our organization advocates for juvenile reforms that are supported by the science of youth brain development and accomplish the rehabilitative goals of the juvenile justice system. Our juvenile attorney has spent countless hours working with legislative stakeholders on juvenile legislation, with reforms made in interrogation, delayed reporting, expungement, and many other areas of juvenile justice.
Over a multi-year effort, our organization has reformed juvenile interrogations by: establishing the right of juveniles to have a friendly adult present during an interrogation; and prohibiting the use of police deception by making false promises of leniency and false statements about evidence during an interrogation.
Task Forces
Our organization is involved in several task forces and working groups created by the Legislature to address specific policy issues, such as:
Criminal Code Recodification
Mental Health and Criminal Justice
Driving Under the Influence
Juvenile-specific Legislation
Forensic DNA Privacy
Violent Crimes
Justice Court Reform
Risk-based Sex Offense Registry
Restitution
High Frequency Criminal Justice Involvement
Drug Court Access
School Security
Opioids and Other Controlled Substances
Utah Rules of Evidence
Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure