Inside Utah (1999-2006)

Utah resident Weldon Angelos sold three eight-ounce bags of marijuana to a police informant. He had a gun, but it wasn't used or even taken out during the drug sale. His conviction for possession of a firearm in a drug transaction meant that he was sentenced to the federal mandatory minimum of 55 years.

"Wear one of these and you're never alone." That’s what the Deseret News had to say about a new tracking device that Utah will soon begin to use on people on parole. "TrackerPal" is an electronic ankle bracelet (secured by a reinforced steel cable) that will track a person’s every movement and pinpoint a person’s exact location using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. Unlike existing ankle bracelets, which can notify officers if a person leaves a house, this one includes a built-in, remote-controlled speakerphone. People monitoring the device remotely can make loud, public announcements through the phone --- such as announcing in public that a person has a criminal record.

Utah has one of the lower rates of incarceration in the western states, but its prison population is still growing. Every year Utah sends 250 more people to prison, and the state is running out of places to incarcerate people. In May, Scott Carver, Director of Corrections, testified before a legislative committee that at its current pace, Utah will need 2,100 additional prison beds by 2015. His proposal is to expand existing prisons and construction of a new prison beginning in 2012.

Prisoners are getting older, and older people often need more expensive healthcare. In Utah, the number of elderly people in prison rose 67% in the last six years. Medical care for people over fifty-five is sixteen times as expensive as medical care for younger people. In dollars, that means treatment for elderly people costs between $2,000 and $12,000 per person. Medical costs per person for younger prisoners are $400 to $600.