In 2015, Utah legislators passed and Governor Gary Hulburt signed into law a package, HB 348, to reform its state criminal justice system. This package included new concepts such as prioritizing prison space for people with serious and violent offenses as well as strengthening community supervision, both of which have yielded substantial public safety returns.

As the economy begins to take off as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the next big thing we're going to see is a need for workers.

Weldon Angelos’s story has become known around the country as a horrifying example of how harsh mandatory minimums can ruin the lives of non-violent criminals and their families. Angelos was sentenced in 2004 to 55 years for drug-related crimes. Judge Paul G. Cassell, who handed down the sentence, was vocal about his frustration with a system that would have Angelos spend the rest of his life incarcerated while child rapists and airplane hijackers received significantly shorter sentences.

Recently, the public debt crisis in Puerto Rico has sparked widespread discussion about the need for public pension reform. The island territory is already $72 billion in debt, with shortfalls in the public pension fund of up to $30 billion. Without major changes in government spending patterns, Puerto Rico is in danger of becoming insolvent, sending the already brittle economy into a death spiral. While many on the left call for the immediate restructuring of Puerto Rico’s debt, the island’s plight is just the latest example of a state or territory misusing and abusing their public pension system, demonstrating the dire need for reform.

FreedomWorks was represented at the University of California in Irvine this past weekend at the California Young Americans for Liberty State Convention, in order to push our Generational Theft survey and youth outreach for our upcoming Generational Theft fly-in during the FreePAC: Morning in America Summit, in Cincinnati March 12.

At the recent Pew Charitable Trusts event, Innovative Solutions to State Challenges: Utah’s Criminal Justice Reform, key players in Utah’s criminal justice reform efforts shared insights on the continuing work for significant reform while highlighting noteworthy changes implemented within the state’s criminal justice system.