Ogden • A proposal to study how implicit racial biases may play into the disproportionate number of minorities in the Utah prison system is in the works for the 2020 legislative session.
Republican state Rep. Marsha Judkins of Provo told the Standard-Examiner she is working on a prosecution transparency bill that would require the collection of data about arrest, charging, sentencing and parole decisions to determine how they may be contributing to racial disparities.
Of people newly sentenced to prison in 2017, 43% were racial or ethnic minorities, according to the Utah Sentencing Commission. Minorities made up just 20% of the population overall that year, census data showed.