UT: Lawmaker wants death penalty for sex traffickers

SALT LAKE CITY — A Davis County Republican wants to give convicted child sex traffickers the ultimate punishment – the death penalty. Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clinton, is pushing to make child sex trafficking a capital offense. He says he accompanied the Salt Lake City vice squad on patrol a few years ago. He’s realized how big an issue child trafficking is in Utah. He said he’s been working on bills to target prostitution and trafficking for years. “I got so fed up with what I’ve seen,” Ray said. “It’s time…

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UT: Letter – Sex offender treatment worth the money

I am writing to draw attention to the fact that our state Legislature’s budget cuts are resulting in cutbacks in sex offender-specific treatment for both adult and juvenile offenders. The budget at the prison has not increased in 17 years, and this is within a time frame that the sex offender population there has been exploding. The juvenile sex offender population is mushrooming, too, without increase in funding. Full Letter to the Editor

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UT: In our opinion – Policy dilemma – how to handle prison issues with large number of sex offenders

The numbers are often repeated in discussions about sexual assault, but they never become less shocking. One out of three women in Utah will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime; one out of eight will be raped. But while there is evidence that a large percentage of sex crimes go uninvestigated and unprosecuted, there are still more people in prison in Utah for sexual assault than for any other category of crime. Full Opionion Piece

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UT: Sex offenders driving up prison population

Prison populations around the country have been in steady decline for the past 10 years. In Utah, it’s a different story. The number of men and women in the state’s prison system has continued to rise, with the highest drivers being nonviolent criminals and sex offenders, who are staying in longer and taking up more beds than ever before, according to data collected by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Sex offenders now take up 42 percent more beds than they did 10 years ago, making them the largest group inside the…

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