Dangerous criminals: Who is tracking Utah's worst offenders?


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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's corrections system is broken. Repeat offenders get too many chances and public safety is at risk. Those are the concerns KSL has heard from police officers and parole agents. The KSL Investigators are shining a light on this important public safety issue after discovering a number of parolees were at the center of a series of violent crimes that have left police officers and innocent Utah residents seriously injured.

Prison overcrowding not an issue

Last month, parolee Cory Henderson shot and killed Unified Police officer Doug Barney.

KSL Investigators looked into whether Henderson got let out because of prison overcrowding. A 2014 report by the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice stated "Utah's prisons are at capacity." It turns out the Department of Corrections has over 600 vacant beds waiting to be used.

"Those beds are available and we've been using them a lot," Rollin Cook, Executive Director Utah Department of Corrections told the KSL Investigators. "Especially, over the last four weeks – especially, as we start to tweak the system."

However, Cory Henderson – despite multiple drug and weapons charges – was paroled twice in less than eight months.

In an audio recording of Henderson's first parole hearing obtained by the KSL Investigators, a parole hearing officer looking over his prior record told him:

"I look at yours and I say, 'holy moly!'" the hearing officer told Henderson. "You just almost deserve five-years time, you understand that?"

But about three-and-a-half minutes after that statement, the same hearing officer

relented.

"I'm going to recommend that you get a parole," said the officer in the recording. "You just make me a little nervous with the guns."

Greg Johnson, of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, responded to the KSL Investigator's question about that decision.

"Well, the decision the board made was to parole him at that time, which gave him the chance in the community," Johnson said. "We can't lock up everyone forever… and, doing so would have tremendous social and economic costs."

"Offender friendly": Agents speak out

Even agents inside Adult Probation and Parole are calling the corrections system broken. A 2010 survey of corrections employees shows agents protested that things had become "more offender friendly" and they felt "added pressure from administration to not return parolees to prison."

Several agents believe the state's recidivism rate – the rate at which parolees are sent back to prison for reoffending – is understated because parolees aren't always returned to prison even if they commit crimes in our communities.

For starters, agents tell KSL Investigators that parolees and probationers can test positive for drugs multiple times without being put back behind bars.

Rollin Cook insists no one in his agency wants to save money by just reducing recidivism.

"There's evidence out there that shows by getting the right programs and giving them opportunities and not just locking them away," Cook said. "You can help them overcome these addictions and you can help them overcome being involved in crime."

Cook pointed out that in the past month the Department of Corrections, along with other police departments, has arrested more than 100 parole and probation fugitives and hauled them back to prison.

Prison workforce: Also a revolving door

The Department of Corrections is dealing with another revolving door: its workforce.

From 2013 to 2015, the agency lost about 400 correctional officers and Adult Probation and Parole agents.

The prison closed three areas and guards are working overtime to make up the shortfall. Each parole agent must keep track of as many as 70 parolees.

Justice Reinvestment Initiative

The Justice Reinvestment Initiative, or JRI, rolled out across Utah last October as a way to avert prison growth. It's expected to save taxpayers 542-million dollars over the next twenty years.

JRI reduces certain drugs crimes from felonies to misdemeanors and cuts sentences. Behind bars, inmates can shave their prison stay by earning a GED or completing programs like substance abuse treatment. And, it's designed to help offenders transition back to the community — setting standards for drug and mental health treatment.

Ron Gordon, executive director of the Commission for Criminal and Juvenile Justice, oversees JRI and explained that the focus is on lower-risk, non-violent offenders.

"The goal is essentially to reduce recidivism, to reduce the repeating cycle of offending in our criminal justice system," said Gordon.

Referring to a number of high-profile crimes committed by parolees Gordon told KSL Investigators, "The reality is I haven't seen any evidence at all to suggest that any of these terrible things that have happened recently are the result of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative."

But critics say the problems with JRI are best highlighted by shiny, plastic tokens given to parolees. They may look like child's toys, but under a new incentive matrix, the Department of Corrections reward offenders with the tokens for good behavior.

Once they earn enough tokens, parolees can trade them for items like water bottles, ear buds or tire gauges.

Even if an offender has violated paroles, agents are instructed by their superiors to find and reward at least four positive things the offender has accomplished.

AP&P sources said that both agents and offenders find these incentives ridiculous.

Keeping lips sealed?

Efforts to silence parole agents about problems KSL has been reporting on spilled over onto social media this past weekend.

In a post on Facebook, the Fraternal Order of Police "cautioned" Department of Corrections employees that "discussions with the press prior to working to resolve things internally isn't the most effective way to bring resolutions."

The post went on to suggest people who speak out could jeopardize a proposed pay hike for corrections employees on Utah's Capitol Hill. The request isn't sitting well with many employees.

Fugitive task force

KSL Investigators sampled a handful of the larger police departments in Utah to find out how many officers participate with the US Marshal Service Violent Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team (VFAST). On average there are 1 to 6 part-time officers that join the VFAST taskforce on the nights or mornings they are out rounding up violent fugitives. There are sixty-five agents total across the state of Utah, according to the VFAST supervisor, Derryl Spencer.

  • West Valley City Police Department: 5 part-time officers
  • Provo Police Department: 1 full-time, 6 part-time officers
  • Ogden Police Department: No officers participating on the VFAST taskforce
  • Unified Police Department: 6 part-time officers
  • Salt Lake City: No officers participating on the VFAST taskforce

KSL investigators also asked, aside for the VFAST task force, if the agencies have their own self-contained units responsible for tracking down violent criminals who are under fugitive status in their own respective jurisdictions. Three of the five departments sampled had their own smaller unit of officers who are responsible for these tasks, on a part-time basis.

  • West Valley City Police: No specific Unit, "At present, because of temporary staffing shortages, the WVCPD does not have a dedicated fugitive unit," Roxeanne Vainuku, spokeswomen for West Valley City Police said.
  • Provo Police Department: "We have a Special Enforcement Team, known as "SET," that has one sergeant and four detectives, and one of their many duties includes fugitive apprehension when needed," Detective Kyle Shelley said.
  • Ogden Police Department: "We have two detectives assigned to NUCAT (Northern Utah Criminal apprehension Team) ran by the FBI, the NUCAT detectives work on the capture of fugitives, along with other investigations," Lt. Will Cragun said.
  • Unified Police Department: "Yes, we have a Major Investigations Unit (MIU). The unit focuses on violent and sex offense warrants… we really don't work drug warrants, property crimes, misdemeanors," LT. Lex Bell, Unified Police Dept., said.

Contributing: Debbie Dujanovic, Mike Headrick, Nicole Vowell, Sloan Schrage, Tania Mashburn, Torin Koos, Josh Szymanik

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