Going on almost 50 years, the Utah Arts Festival hit it off on the town last weekend. Full of vibrancy, variety and personality, the weekend was well worth the heat. Utah Arts Festival was sure to have cleaned your pockets out.

Utah Arts Festival is a place where all forms of art — whether it be visual, performance or literary — can come together to create a masterful weekend of art viewing. The weekend was full of differing art and backgrounds from 180+ artists.

I was absolutely aghast at the large sum of artists, booths and performances to participate in and view. Many booths were brought in this weekend, showcasing artists’ work not just locally but country-wide. It was really interesting to see just how many were here from out of state. I met many artists from California, Wisconsin, Washington, Colorado and several others. Quite a few locals also expressed this fascination.

Don’t be Afraid to Fangirl

While walking around the park, I stopped to talk with some of these artists about their art, passion and process of creating. Based in Salt Lake City, Jamie A. Kyle creates colorful, photographic tableaus that are inspired by western images with a modern take. The coolest part about their display at the event was the use of frames that are one of a kind and brought back for show to the public.

From Nevada, Sabrina Frey caught my eye instantly with their beaded mosaics. I was taken aback by the immense amount of detail in these paintings. It was impressive and a completely new idea I had never thought of before. When speaking with Frey, they interested me in the fact they created their own method for beading but also created a formula for the glue that they use to keep the beads nice and tight for these images to pop.

Alison Bernadette – Bernadette’s Handmade Jewelry – traveled from Bozeman, Montana and what a treat it was. Their jewelry is truly beautiful in every form. I had an instant interest in her crafted pieces and use of vintage glass gathered from war periods of the early 1900s. They stated that when shopping they can get quite a few at a time, and sometimes even a full set — which you can buy from them to complete a fashionable look. If you peek into their tent, you’re sure to be taken by the magnificent and colorful decor of these jewels.

I Love New Art and You Will Too

Not only was it a place for successful artists to showcase, but the Festival also brought so much opportunity for new and emerging artists to shine. Some of my favorite moments were created by performing artists Drusky and Queenadilla. Both local bands based in Salt Lake City who stole the show with their incredibly rockin’ sets. I have seen Drusky in performance before and they never fail to impress, but this was my first time being introduced to Queenadilla and what a pleasure it was. They’re making the blues cool again with their new rock n’ roll tunes.

Another portion that caught my attention was the literary arts portions that were showcased on their WordFest stage. It was incredibly riveting to see such vulnerability and honesty produced by these artists.

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SALT LAKE CITY — A “long duration of heat” is on the way, the National Weather Service said.

Starting Wednesday, June 10, certain areas in Utah will be on an Excessive Heat Watch, which will end Friday. 

Areas under this heat watch will include most of western Utah. 

“As high pressure builds, the extreme heat will spread northward, with dangerous heat possible for most valleys across UT for the middle to latter part of the week,” the NWS said via X. 

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.”

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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

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