AI-generated summary, not yet reviewed by Better Utah staff. Please consult the bill text.

Correctional facility law in Utah would see several changes under this bill. It would make the "direct supervision" model—where correctional staff interact directly with inmates rather than observing them from behind barriers—optional rather than mandatory when new or renovated facilities are built, and it would eliminate the current requirement that the Department of Corrections publicly report on and justify any deviation from this supervision model. The bill would also expand the crime of illegally flying a drone near a correctional facility to include using a drone to remove items from prison property, making that a third-degree felony alongside the existing ban on dropping items into a facility. Finally, unpaid monthly supervision fees charged to offenders on probation or parole would no longer count as part of an offender's official criminal debt record; instead, any unpaid fees would be turned over to the Office of State Debt Collection once a sentence ends, and when the state collects money from an offender's outstanding debts, those unpaid supervision fees would be paid off first, ahead of victim restitution and other costs.