Crime bills' success likely to depend on available funding

First-time drug offenders could get special treatment while third-time violent offenders could get the gavel if two of several bills directed at crime and justice are passed this legislative session.

A slew of bills this year have been filed to deal with everything from curbing vehicle theft to looking at the way judges handle victim restitution. Although many of these bills do not appear terribly controversial, funding will determine which bills pass.

Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, is one lawmaker who is confident that given a budgetary surplus this year, his Drug Offender Reform Act will pass. Given that roughly 90 percent of crimes are linked with drug abuse, Buttars said the DORA bill is extremely important in dealing with Utah's growing drug abuse problem.

"We're going to change the way we have sentenced first and second-time drug offenders in the past 100 years," Buttars said. SB22 would redirect first- and second-time, nonviolent drug offenders from prison sentences and send them to a network of drug treatment centers.

Buttars said DORA would help handle the swelling prison population, which currently fluctuates between 5,800 and 6,100 inmates. "With DORA online, you could clear up to 2,000 of those beds," Buttars said, and could save the state an estimated $60 million in costs.

But the bill comes with a price tag. Buttars said in its first year, DORA will cost $6.2 million, in its second year $12.1 million and in its third year $16.7 million.

In addition to setting up a network of outpatient drug treatment centers, DORA will also allow judges the option to order drug treatment in lieu of incarceration.

This is the third year that Buttars has introduced this bill, which died last year because of its price tag.

In the House, Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, is introducing a bill that deals with the worst of society's offenders. Ray calls the Habitual Violent Offenders Bill essentially a three-strikes bill. A person convicted of a violent crime twice would face the possibility of life in prison the third time, as the charges would be bumped up to a first-degree felony under the proposed law.

Deputy Attorney General C.C. Horton said the Legislature added enhancements to the law several years ago, increasing a third violent offense by one degree. Horton said not only would the Habitual Violent Offenders Bill increase the level to a first-degree felony, but it would also broaden the list of violent crimes that qualify for harsher penalties.