SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A Utah legislative committee has advanced a bill to repeal most of a recently passed law that requires judges to release people accused of low-level crimes with the least restrictive condition appropriate to their case.
The Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee on Tuesday voted 4-3 in favor of the bail reform measure, KUTV-TV reported. It will next head to the full Senate before the legislative session ends Friday.
“We all have the same end goal,” said Republican state Rep. Mike Schultz, sponsor of the repeal bill. “We truly want to get bail reform right. The question is, how do we do it and protect public safety at the same time?”
The original law states judges have to consider public safety and the defendant’s likelihood to appear in court when assigning a condition for pretrial release, including weekly check-ins, drug tests, ankle monitors and cash bail.
Bail reform was designed to keep people from remaining behind bars for lower-level offenses just because they could not afford to pay.
Supporters of the bill, many from law enforcement agencies, have said there is a public safety risk because some people could potentially walk out of jail when they should not be able to.
“We have example after example of some of the worst offenders being released within hours, many of whom committed crimes against others, putting victims of their crimes in danger,” Schultz previously told KUER-FM. “We also have many examples of very low offenders, many of whom would have been immediately released upon booking being held for longer periods of time.”
Opponents of the bill have argued that poor and marginalized communities will be hurt by reversing the recently passed law. Utah County Attorney David Leavitt accused lawmakers of playing politics.
“These bodies, in my opinion, have begun to value politics over policy,” said Leavitt. “That has real consequences to people who don’t have a voice in this committee hearing.”
Leavitt and other district attorneys and public defenders held a news conference on Monday where they accused lawmakers of acting in “bad faith” and sharing inaccurate data to promote repeal.
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