Each year, the Utah Legislature introduces hundreds of bills that affect the criminal justice system.
Some of these bills attempt to reform our system, but more often we see bills that seek to enhance penalties - even create new criminal offenses. Our research staff examined years of bill data to analyze criminalization trends since the implementation of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI).
Overview of all bills since JRI.
Out of hundreds of criminal justice bills proposed from 2016 to 2024, our staff identified 467 that fit into the project categories.
Bills can include multiple provisions. To avoid misrepresenting the total number of bills introduced, each bill in this project was assigned to only one category.
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Bills under this category sought to establish new criminal offenses. Out of 171 introduced, 85 passed and became law.
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Bills under this category sought to repeal existing criminal offenses. Over the course of seven years, nine were introduced and only four passed.
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Bills under this category sought to enhance the severity or number of penalties associated with an existing criminal offense. Out of 110 introduced, 70 passed and became law.
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Bills under this category sought to reduce the severity or number of penalties associated with an existing criminal offense. Out of 44 introduced, 30 passed.
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Bills under this category sought to expand the applicability of existing criminal offenses in such a way that the offense applied to more people. Out of 98 introduced, 58 passed and became law.
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Bills under this category sought to narrow the applicability of existing criminal offenses in such a way that the offense applied to fewer people. Out of 35 introduced, 24 passed.