Salt Lake City — In a year‑end Conversations with Corrections podcast, Utah Department of Corrections Executive Director Jared Garcia and Division of Prison Operations representative Spencer Turley described 2025 operational changes they say have improved safety, assessment fidelity and reentry outcomes.

Garcia opened the discussion by framing the department’s priorities around staff support and reentry, saying the agency is "well on our way to being the best correctional agency in the country." He told listeners the department has faced a shortfall in its operations and maintenance budget that affected prison operations and required a close review of overtime, contracts and purchasing to demonstrate efficiency to the legislature and the governor’s office.

"We've had a shortfall in our operations and maintenance budget," Garcia said, describing steps to reduce mandatory overtime and to reorganize purchasing and command structures to show fiscal responsibility to state leadership.

Turley and Garcia highlighted several operational changes now in place. The department has resumed offering dialysis inside the prison at USCF this year, a change Turley said reduces the need to transport people to off‑site clinics and has helped lower overtime and transport risk. "For years, we've been transporting inmates off‑site to a dialysis clinic... finally, this year, we're offering dialysis in the prison again," Turley said, crediting Correctional Health Services for the partnership.

The UDC is also rolling out new technology. Garcia described the Iris Center, an artificial intelligence‑enabled system the department uses to monitor incoming phone calls and to speed and standardize report writing. He said the agency has entered a contract intended to improve case management and assessment fidelity across the custody‑to‑reentry continuum.

Turley described a security change for transportation staff: giving transportation officers unmarked vehicles to reduce the risk inherent in moving people outside facility perimeters. "One of the ways that we've talked about increasing security is by giving our transportation officers unmarked vehicles to drive," he said.

On standards and inspections, Turley said the Safety Risk and Standards Bureau (led by Chief of Safety Brian Kenny) has spent months revising correctional standards used to inspect UDC facilities, community correctional centers and the 20 county jails the department contracts with. Those revised standards were circulated to jail commanders, sheriffs and wardens and are scheduled for implementation on July 1, 2026.

"Coming up, 07/01/2026, we'll implement these new standards across the board in our facilities, the jails, and the community correctional center," Turley said.

Garcia and Turley also described changes to training intended to emphasize a "dynamic security" model focused on officer–inmate interaction and communications skills, plus in‑service training and academy changes to support a younger workforce. Turley said the goal is to move ‘‘the middle’’ of the population — providing tiered housing and privileges to encourage participation in programming.

The department credited APMP with reducing returns to custody for technical parole violations. Garcia estimated an improvement of "about 8%" when presenting to legislators; Turley corrected that the improvement was "less than 8%" and later characterized the change from 2023 to 2025 as "about 4 percent" in parole returns, crediting community supervision efforts to address violations without immediate reincarceration.

The podcast closed with Garcia and Turley describing efforts to "tell the story" of corrections work, noting outside recognition for data‑driven community supervision and urging staff to view the podcast. Garcia said broader public understanding is important for gaining trust and acceptance of the department’s programs.

The department provided contact information and a reminder that the podcast and other resources are available on corrections.utah.gov and the UDC YouTube page; listeners were invited to submit future topic suggestions to corrections@utah.gov.

What happens next: the department plans additional podcast episodes and will begin implementing revised standards July 1, 2026. No formal votes or policy adoptions were recorded on the podcast.