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$1 billion Utah prison isn’t delivering promised programs

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 billion Utah prison isn’t delivering promised programs


SALT LAKE CITY — If Franklin Carroll wants to walk out of prison before his sentences expire in 2029, he needs to take sex-offender treatment courses.

“I’m just burning up time here,” Carroll said in a phone call to FOX 13. “There’s not a lot of options for me – just to stare at walls.”

Carroll has been writing for months – to FOX 13, friends, family, prison officials, Gov. Spencer Cox. All the correspondence complains that he is unable to take the treatment that the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole has told him he needs to complete for an early release.

“Just the lack of resources,” Carroll said, explaining the excuses he’s heard. “Not enough counselors.”

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He’s one of dozens of Utah prison inmates who aren’t receiving treatment. And they’re having to stay behind bars longer because of it.

“I hear it directly from inmates,” said Brian Redd, who last year became the director of the Utah Department of Corrections. “‘My parole date was moved because you couldn’t get me the treatment that I needed.’”

According to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole – BOP in the lingo of the Utah justice system –about 67 inmates had their parole dates rescinded last year because, through no fault of their own, they were unable to complete their required treatment. At $140 a day to house an inmate, those missed parole dates add up on ledgers.

The problem isn’t limited to sex offenders, and is wider than inmates already scheduled for parole. Often prisoners can’t get into therapies that could reduce violence and drug use within the prisons, Redd acknowledges. At the penitentiaries in Salt Lake City and Gunnison, what programming is available is prioritized for inmates trying meet their parole dates.

Philip Hatfield, serving sentences for attempted murder and assault, said he waited seven years before being admitted into a cognitive behavior course.

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“And I’d like to get into substance abuse treatment,” Hatfield said in an interview at the Salt Lake City prison, “but I’ve been told no on that, too, because I have to have a year to getting out (on parole).”

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

When Utah legislators were pitching the closing of the Draper prison and the building of the new one in Salt Lake City, they often said a new prison would offer new programming opportunities for inmates.

A video produced in 2015 by the Prison Relocation Commission even touted inmate therapies as a way to reduce recidivism and lower costs across the state’s justice system.

During the 2022 dedication for the Salt Lake City prison, whose construction costs grew to $1 billion, Cox listed therapy as one of its assets.

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“So that there can be more programming here,” the governor said. “So that we can give these incarcerated individuals the tools to fix their lives.”

Redd said a lack of staff is the reason for the programming struggles. The two prisons need more teachers and therapists. They also need more corrections officers – the preferred term for guards – to escort inmates to classrooms and keep a watch there.

The lack of programming is “something that we definitely are working on,” Redd said. “And it’s not OK.”

Redd, who worked his way through the state trooper ranks, was not one of those public officials making promises during the prison debate a decade ago. But he says he is cognizant of those commitments made to taxpayers. Corrections is trying to address the deficiencies through hiring more staff, he said.

Redd also wants to ensure inmates are receiving programming as soon as they enter prison; not just in a rush at the end to meet a deadline for parole.

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“We want to make sure that we’re bringing them in,” Redd said, “and giving them opportunities right out of the gate.”

Jennifer Yim, the spokeswoman for BOP, said it has begun meeting with inmates soon after their arrivals at the prisons, making determinations about what programming those inmates need, and relaying those needs to Corrections so it can plan.

Completing treatment is no guarantee of parole, though it increases the likelihood. Also, without treatment, Utah runs the risk of letting inmates like Carroll, who have finite prison terms, sit in prison longer and then return to society with no new coping mechanisms.

The sex offender courses teach things like empathy and decision making. Instead of learning that, Carroll said, he spends a lot of his day watching television.

“I will be a hundred percent honest,” Carroll said. “At first, I wanted [treatment] for me. I wanted to learn things from it.

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“But now I just feel like my back’s against the wall and I’m forced to do it.”





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911 recordings detail hours leading up to discovery of Utah girl, mother dead in Las Vegas

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911 recordings detail hours leading up to discovery of Utah girl, mother dead in Las Vegas


CONTENT WARNING: This report discusses suicide and includes descriptions of audio from 911 calls that some viewers may find disturbing.

LAS VEGAS — Exclusively obtained 911 recordings detail the hours leading up to the discovery of an 11-year-old Utah girl and her mother dead inside a Las Vegas hotel room in an apparent murder-suicide.

Addi Smith and her mother, Tawnia McGeehan, lived in West Jordan and had traveled to Nevada for the JAMZ cheerleading competition.

The calls show a growing sense of urgency from family members and coaches, and several hours passing before relatives learned what happened.

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MORE | Murder-Suicide

Below is a timeline of the key moments, according to dispatch records. All times are Pacific Time.

10:33 a.m. — Call 1

After Addi and her mother failed to appear at the cheerleading competition, Addi’s father and stepmother called dispatch for a welfare check.

Addi and her mother were staying at the Rio hotel. The father told dispatch that hotel security had already attempted contact.

“Security went up and knocked on the door. There’s no answer or response it doesn’t look like they checked out or anything…”

11:18 a.m. and 11:27 a.m. — Calls 2 and 3

As concern grew, Addi’s coach contacted the police two times within minutes.

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“We think the child possibly is in imminent danger…”

11:26 a.m. — Call 4

Addi’s stepmother placed another call to dispatch, expressing escalating concern.

“We are extremely concerned we believe that something might have seriously happened.”

She said that Tawnia’s car was still at the hotel.

Police indicated officers were on the way.

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2:26 p.m. — Call 5

Nearly three hours after the initial welfare check request, fire personnel were en route to the scene. It appeared they had been in contact with hotel security.

Fire told police that they were responding to a possible suicide.

“They found a note on the door.”

2:35 p.m. — Call 6

Emergency medical personnel at the scene told police they had located two victims.

“It’s going to be gunshot wound to the head for both patients with notes”

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A dispatcher responded:

“Oh my goodness that’s not okay.”

2:36 p.m. — Call 7

Moments later, fire personnel relayed their assessment to law enforcement:

“It’s going to be a murder suicide, a juvenile and a mother.”

2:39 p.m. — Call 8

Unaware of what had been discovered, Addi’s father called dispatch again.

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“I’m trying to file a missing persons report for my daughter.”

He repeats the details he knows for the second time.

3:13 p.m. — Call 9

Father and stepmother call again seeking information and continue to press for answers.

“We just need some information. There was a room check done around 3:00 we really don’t know where to start with all of this Can we have them call us back immediately?”

Dispatch responded:

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“As soon as there’s a free officer, we’ll have them reach out to you.”

4:05 p.m. — Call 10

More than an hour later, Addi’s father was put in contact with the police on the scene. He pleaded for immediate action.

“I need someone there I need someone there looking in that room”

The officer confirmed that they had officers currently in the room.

Addi’s father asks again what they found, if Addi and her mother are there, and if their things were missing.

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The officer, who was not on scene, said he had received limited information.

5:23 p.m. — Call 11

Nearly seven hours after the first welfare check request, Addi’s grandmother contacted police, describing conflicting information circulating within the family.

“Some people are telling us that they were able to get in, and they were not in the hotel room, and other people saying they were not able to get in the hotel room, and we need to know”

She repeated the details of the case. Dispatch said officers will call her back once they have more information.

Around 8:00 p.m. — Press Conference

Later that evening, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police held a news conference confirming that Addi and her mother, Tawnia McGeehan, were found dead inside the hotel room.

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The investigation remains ongoing.

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Ban on AI glasses in Utah classrooms inches closer to passing

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Ban on AI glasses in Utah classrooms inches closer to passing


AI glasses could allow you to get answers, snap photos, access audio and take phone calls—and now a proposal moving through the legislature would ban the glasses from Utah school classrooms.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Kizzy Guyton Murphy, a mother who accompanied her child’s class on a field trip to the state Capitol on Wednesday. “You can’t see inside what the student is looking at, and it’s just grounds for cheating.”

Mom Tristan Davies Seamons also sees trouble with AI glasses.

“I don’t think they should have any more technology in schools than they currently have,” she said.

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Her twin daughters, fourth graders Finley and Grayson, don’t have cell phones yet.

“Not until we’re like 14,” said Grayson, adding they do have Chromebooks in school.

2News sent questions to the Utah State Board of Education:

  • Does it have reports of students using AI glasses?
  • Does it see cheating and privacy as major concerns?
  • Does it support a ban from classrooms?

Matt Winters, USBE AI specialist, said the board has not received reports from school districts of students with AI glasses.

“Local Education Agencies (school districts) have local control over these decisions based on current law and code,” said Winters. “The Board has not taken a position on AI glasses.

MORE | Utah State Legislature:

Some districts across the country have reportedly put restrictions on the glasses in schools.

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“I think it should be up to the teachers,” said Briauna Later, another mother who is all for preventing cheating, but senses a ban could leave administrators with tired eyes.

“It’s one more thing for the administration to have to keep track of,” said Later.

The proposal, HB 42, passed the House and cleared a Senate committee on Wednesday.

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Kalshi sues Utah over efforts to stop prop betting in the state

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Kalshi sues Utah over efforts to stop prop betting in the state


SALT LAKE CITY — A prediction market is suing Utah over plans to regulate proposition betting that it says would run afoul of federal regulations.

Kalshi is a New York-based prediction market that allows users to place “event contracts” on future outcomes and earn a payout if they are correct. Those transactions are regulated through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, the company said Utah has plans to prevent the company from offering contracts in the state and asked the courts to block any enforcement that “interferes with the operation and function of plaintiffs’ futures market.”

“Plaintiff KalshiEX LLC believes the governor of Utah and the Attorney General’s Office of Utah will imminently bring an enforcement action against Kalshi with the intent to prevent Kalshi from offering event contracts for trading on its federally regulated exchange,” the complaint states. “Defendants have repeatedly represented that they believe Kalshi is operating unlawfully under Utah anti-gambling laws.”

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The lawsuit points to a couple of posts from Gov. Spencer Cox and an op-ed written by Attorney General Derek Brown in the Deseret News on Sunday. After Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Mike Selig announced that his agency would “defend its exclusive jurisdiction” over prediction markets last week, Cox took to X calling the markets “gambling — pure and simple.”

“They are destroying the lives of families and countless Americans, especially young men,” he wrote. “They have no place in Utah. Let me be clear, I will use every resource within my disposal as governor of the sovereign state of Utah, and under the Constitution of the United States to beat you in court.”

He followed that up last Thursday, saying Utah is “ready to defend our laws in court and protect Utahns from companies that drive addiction, isolation and serious financial harm.”

In his op-ed, Brown argued that prediction markets are “the newest iteration of gambling” and said he didn’t see a difference between betting and trading futures.

“Although traditional sports betting apps are illegal under Utah law, these platforms argue that they merely allow users to hedge their risk,” he wrote. “But what is the real risk to hedge when you are simply predicting whether LeBron James will score more or less than another player? It’s simply a bet, dressed up in different clothing.”

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The lawsuit also comes as the state Legislature is advancing a bill that would clarify that proposition betting — or betting placed on specific players or events during games — falls under the state’s definition of gambling, which is prohibited by the Utah Constitution. HB243 has passed the House and a Senate committee and is awaiting consideration on the Senate floor.

But Kalshi says its contracts are lawful thanks to a carveout in Utah’s anti-gambling laws that allows for “lawful business.” Its lawsuit claims Kalshi’s attorneys made “multiple attempts” to contact Brown about potential action against the company but were “met with silence, even though the Utah AG had previously been willing to communicate with counsel.”

Asked about the lawsuit on Tuesday, Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said he is “standing with the governor on this one.”

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.



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