Pilot program for sex offender supervision passed by committee

The House Law Enforcement Committee Tuesday opted not to vote on a scaled-down bill aimed at intensifying the state's efforts to reduce sex offender recidivism after representatives of the Utah Department of Corrections testified against it.

The committee opted to move the substituted version of HB109 to its next agenda. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, was scaled down from its original statewide reach to create a one-year pilot program for a single region with 750 sex offenders. The bill's fiscal note is $495,000.

For that region, DOC would administer a "multi-domain assessment" to registered sex offenders it supervises in the community at least every 16 weeks during the first year that offender is supervised, every 12 to 26 weeks for an unspecified time period after that.

"We're saying we believe it's time to consider a pilot program for a year," Hughes said. "It is a way to bring out innovations."

Larry Bench, research consultant for DOC, said the bill would require using "a tool that is not validated," and said the state is being innovative. "We are using a number of tools that have been thoroughly researched," he said. "What is at stake here, the Department of Corrections is being asked to spend a lot of time and expense to validate a tool."