Under Utah code, teens convicted of the most serious crimes can already be sentenced as adults — but they’re typically kept out of adult prison until they’re deemed age‑appropriate.
That could change if a new bill passes during this legislative session.
Republican Rep. Karianne Lisonbee has proposed a broad overhaul of Utah’s juvenile justice system, with a focus on data, oversight and accountability. Most of HB48’s provisions drew favorable public comment during House Judiciary Committee hearings in early February.
But one section of the bill has many people divided. If passed, it would allow prosecutors, in cases involving aggravated murder, to file a motion seeking to have a minor transferred from a secure youth facility to an adult jail or prison.
Lacey Singleton, a criminal defense attorney with the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association, is concerned that the focus of these court proceedings will be less about the sentence the juvenile deserves and more about whether they should be sent to an adult prison.
Right now, that isn’t part of their job.
“I think you would start to see plea negotiations in murder cases that would revolve around placement of the individual, as opposed to the case itself,” she said.
Under current law, minors can stay in youth facilities until 25, depending on the case. Singleton argues that the Utah Juvenile Justice and Youth Services is already best suited to decide when transfers are necessary.
“There are already mechanisms in place for an individual who is housed in a juvenile facility that can be transferred to the adult facility if that juvenile facility feels it is no longer safe for them to house them there,” she said, pointing out that judges don't play a role in where an adult defendant is housed in jail or prison.
Rep. Lisonbee emphasized that her bill would only apply to aggravated murder, which is rare among juveniles.
“If you committed the crime when you're 17, and you're sentenced when you're 18, then the prosecution can motion for a hearing,” she said, “to determine if you are more appropriately placed in juvenile detention or in the prison system — and a judge would have to determine that.”
Singleton said minors should be treated as minors regardless of sentencing age, and warned that adult prisons expose young people to gang pressure and victimization.
For almost 14 years, Jesus Martinez was an inmate in the state prison, convicted of aggravated burglary and attempted murder after shooting a police officer in 2009. He now lives in Vernal and works at his family’s restaurant. He agrees with Singleton.
“Rough, very rough thing to watch,” he said, recalling young inmates he knew who were transferred to prison early.
“You can just tell guys at a younger age are on a different cognitive level compared to older men,” he explained. “And the number one, I would say, the risk that young men would be most exposed to is sexual predation.”
These younger inmates, he said, also join gangs quickly as a method of survival.
“I was then max with a kid who came in at 18 years old, you know, taken in by one of the gangs,” he said.
This inmate, he recalled, “was given a task to stab somebody,” and once they followed through with those orders, he was convicted and had years added onto his sentence.
“These kids will be nothing but tools for either some nefarious means or sexual predation.”
Martinez believes that even in violent cases, young offenders should remain in the juvenile system as long as allowed.
“Imagine you're going into a swimming pool, and you go in on the shallow end — you have time to adjust to your conditions,” he said. “You have time to kind of learn to maneuver yourself.”
To him, that’s the juvenile or county facilities. Youth who transition through them adapt far better once in prison.
“They understand how the system works,” he said. “They understand the prison politics. They understand the nuances that happen to a greater degree, and were also able to develop mentally a little bit more with regards to maturing and the mental processes that happen at that time.”
He saw that as an immense help to those inmates.
It's important to note that if a minor is over 18 while in a juvenile facility, Utah law doesn’t require them to remain there until 25. The juvenile justice service can transfer them if they’re deemed a danger. Currently, however, that decision rests solely with the agency.
Arguments for the bill have said that giving judges oversight of transfer decisions is reasonable, as long as it serves as a safeguard rather than a tool for pushing harsher outcomes.
“For an individual who commits capital murder,” Lisonbee explained, “they can bring their defense in and make their arguments before the judge, and the judge can decide, just like JJYS can decide.”
“So it's just adding another hearing in a potential situation where it might be more appropriate to move them.”
But for Martinez, who’s spent most of his adult life behind bars, this bill poses a serious contradiction to Utah’s apparent “pro‑rehabilitation” approach to corrections.
“It's no stretch of the imagination to think that these kids are going to not get better, but get unbelievably worse.”
