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Committee advances corrections 'cleanup' bill changing name-change rules, record requests, tablet revenue and execution protocol
Summary
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced 1st Substitute Senate Bill 74, a corrections "cleanup" package that revises name-change and records-request rules, clarifies internal-investigation notification, authorizes tablet revenue collection, and updates execution protocol language.
The Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Standing Committee on Wednesday voted unanimously to favorably recommend 1st Substitute Senate Bill 74, a package of corrections-related changes sponsored by Senator Todd Owens.
The bill responds to operational issues identified by the Department of Corrections. "There's really 5 changes that are occurring, different changes in the bill," said Brian Red, executive director of the Utah Department of Corrections, during the committee presentation.
SB 74 would (1) broaden the definition of "offender" so the current exception that allows a person on probation or parole to seek a name or gender-marker change on a birth certificate also explicitly includes incarcerated people, and it would bar an offender from petitioning a district court for a name change while incarcerated or while on probation or parole; (2) extend an existing limit of five GRAMA record requests per year (unless represented by counsel) to people on probation and parole as well as incarcerated people; (3) remove a statutory requirement that the department notify the sheriff or another law enforcement agency to conduct certain internal criminal investigations, aligning the statute with current practice of turning investigations over to the State Bureau of Investigation; (4) authorize the corrections department to collect revenue generated by tablets used by incarcerated people, modeled on existing authority for phone revenue, with the stated intent that revenue would fund programming and vocational training; and (5) update execution protocol language to remove sodium thiopental from the statute and permit "one or more substances" that will cause death without a substantial risk of severe pain.
On the first set of changes, Red said the bill will "include offender, which includes anyone who is incarcerated or on probation or parole" and will "not allow an offender to petition a district court while incarcerated or on probation or parole to do a name change." On the tablet revenue proposal he said: "Currently, we don't generate any revenue from our tablets. But we're looking at a pilot and looking at options for generating revenue...typically, that revenue goes back into programming for the incarcerated individuals." On lethal-injection language, Red explained the bill "removes Sodium thiopental from the statute" and replaces it with wording allowing a type and amount of drug "that is sufficiently affected to cause death without substantial risk or severe pain." He noted past executions used pentobarbital.
Committee members asked clarifying questions about how tablet revenue would be governed and how the department administers investigations; Red said revenue from phones currently funds vocational training and programming and that the department typically refers employee criminal investigations to the State Bureau of Investigation.
The committee took three formal actions on the item during the hearing: adoption of a substitute, adoption of an amendment to that substitute, and a motion to favorably recommend the substituted and amended bill to the full Senate. All recorded procedural motions passed unanimously on voice votes.
The bill will go to the Senate floor for further consideration.
Votes at a glance: The committee adopted the first substitute and Amendment 1 to Sub 1 on voice votes and then voted to favorably recommend 1st Substitute SB 74, all motions passing unanimously per the committee record.
