Panel may redraft its stance on sentences

Mindful of the tragic fate of 5-year-old Destiny Norton, whose body was found in a neighbor's house only days ago, the Utah Sentencing Commission on Wednesday agreed to redraft a position paper on Utah's system of "indeterminate sentencing" to more heavily emphasize community safety and victims' rights.

The original draft was reviewed and critiqued at a previous meeting and expectations were that it would be approved Wednesday. But Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, expressed reservations over the wording, which he suggested might incorrectly imply Utah is soft on crime.

For example, the document includes references to such things as rehabilitation and the fact that the final decision about how long someone spends in prison is made by the Board of Pardons and Parole, which has more complete and long-term information and contact with a convict.

Bell and other commission members agreed rehabilitating convicted criminals is a good thing.

But Bell said he would like to see more emphasis on the state's involvement in punishment for crimes, protection of victims and protection of society in general, with a secondary focus on trying to change the way offenders think and act.

"Indeterminate sentencing" provides a range of years in prison for certain types of crimes. A first-degree felony, for example, carries a sentence of five-years-to-life in prison. But although the sentencing judge decides whether to impose the sentence, or suspend it, he or she does not decide how long the convicted person stays behind bars — that is determined by the pardons board.

Some other states have minimum mandatory sentences for certain crimes. Utah used to have such a system but switched in 1996 to the indeterminate sentencing approach. Corrections officials said this resulted in more child sex offenders being convicted of first-degree felonies and the annual number of such offenders being sent to prison has increased 42 percent since 1996.

Bell said many of his fellow legislators don't care about the "unique" differences among individuals, especially in light of the tragic Destiny Norton case, in which the medical examiner found the victim was suffocated and then sexually abused. Legislators and most of the public want perpetrators of violent crimes, especially those against children, dealt with pronto.

"When my colleagues read this, they don't care how unique and rigid policies are — they just want to lock them up," Bell said.

As for the board of pardons handling cases with more information and connection with the inmate, commission member Paul Boyden noted that this is one of the "crucial benefits" of the system. "When we had minimum mandatory sentences in Utah, we had judges making decisions that should have been made by the board of pardons."

Judge Gregory Orme of the Utah Court of Appeals suggested that rehabilitation appear in the document as a component of the general idea of protecting society. Many convicts are released from prison and society is better off if they have been rehabilitated. "If we can turn some of those folks around, they aren't going to be breaking into our homes at night and kidnapping our kids."

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