Research Reports

Under the direction of the Utah Courts and the Division of Child and Family Services, the Social Research Institute evaluated the quality of child welfare court hearings before and after the implementation of a judicial bench card statewide. The goals of this evaluation were to 1) assess indicators of the level of bench card utilization and provide feedback to improve fidelity, 2) analyze parent and youth experience, 3) analyze the impact of the bench card on hearing quality after implementation, and 4) evaluate bench card impact on child outcomes.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance awards funding to federal and state correctional agencies for vital programs and systems reform aimed at improving the reentry process through the Second Chance Act (SCA).

This report summarizes the research efforts related to the Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Arrest and Referral Assessment conducted by the University of Utah’s Utah Criminal Justice Center (UCJC). The report is divided into the following sections.

UCJC contracted with the Department of Public Safety to evaluate the 24/7 Sobriety Program being piloted in Weber County, Utah. Specifically, UCJC is evaluating various aspects of the 24/7 program. This report addresses the following objectives related to the 24/7 evaluation.

Building an evidence-based criminal justice system requires an ongoingcommitment from stakeholders to continually make improvements and promote collaborative work. Through the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI), first passed in 2015, the state of Utah joined 25 other states in implementing strategies to reduce recidivism (Welsh-Loveman & Harvell, 2018)...