Is Jessica's Law for Utah?

Despite a push by some legislators for a Utah version of Jessica's Law, which would require a mandatory sentence of 25 years for sex offenses against children, the Utah Sentencing Commission is solidly behind the state's existing system of "indeterminate sentencing."

The commission is pondering endorsement of a position paper that would be released to legislators, the media and others describing how Utah's sentencing works. The commission recently reviewed a draft version of the document to be discussed Wednesday at the Legislature's Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee meeting.

Commission director Tom Patterson presented the draft document at a recent commission meeting and said he prepared it because some legislators are under pressure to draft a new law for sex offenses against children based on Jessica's Law in Florida.

That law was adopted in Florida after Jessica Lunsford, 9, was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 2005. Convicted sex offender John Evander Couey, 47, confessed to the crime.

The Florida law requires a minimum 25-year sentence for certain sex crimes involving children, and also mandates an offender wear a satellite tracking device for life, even after being released from prison. Several other states have adopted similar laws, but many involved in Utah's criminal justice system say what is in place here works well.

"We went the route of minimum mandatory sentences until 1996, and as soon as we got rid of it, the whole system works a lot better," said Paul Boyden, executive director of the Statewide Association of Prosecutors.

Boyden and others want the commission to endorse the position supporting indeterminate sentencing, but there is some reluctance over the possible political fallout.

One fear, expressed by commission member Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, is that those who do not read the material in the document fully would get the incorrect impression that Utah is "soft on crime," which Bell insists is simply not the case.

Data from the Utah Department of Corrections shows that since repealing mandatory sentences, Utah is getting more sex offenders convicted of first-degree felonies, the number of sex offenders sent to prison annually has gone up by 42 percent and there are more plea agreements by offenders — which means fewer trials in which children have to endure the trauma of testifying in court.