H.B. 593 Bail Amendments

What this bill does

For defendants who have prior convictions (not counting traffic offenses) and have been charged with multiple crimes within a set time window, this bill would require pretrial release to include a supervision or financial condition. It would also limit magistrates' pretrial release options for these repeat defendants to those with a supervisory or financial component.

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Every vote

• 9 yes, 0 no, 2 absentHouse Judiciary Committee: vote to change the bill · Mar 2, 2026Who voted how
• 9 yes, 0 no, 2 absentHouse Judiciary Committee: Amendment Recommendation · Mar 2, 2026Who voted how
• 8 yes, 1 no, 2 absentHouse Judiciary Committee: vote to approve it · Mar 2, 2026Who voted how
• 56 yes, 15 no, 4 absentFinal House vote · Mar 3, 2026Who voted how

Hearings and debates

• Mar 2, 2026 House Judiciary Committee▶ Watch
  Transcript (29 turns)

  1. Committee chair1:33:59

     Thank you representative. And we will now hear from this from Representative MacPherson on HB 5 93. Are you presenting to the first sub? Yes. And to, there's an amendment to that sub as well. Okay. So sub and an amendment, please proceed.

  2. Rep. Matt MacPherson1:34:15

     Thank you. So currently, um, just for some data, uh, purposes, I'll let you know that we have a significant number of our, uh, pretrial services that exists in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County in particular. And that's because the services are where the people go and the people go where the services are. And that has put some disproportionate effect on law enforcement in our, um, capital city and the county, uh, surrounding it. What this means is, is that, uh, if you look at the data last in just one year, about a thousand people represented nearly half of all charges and, and, uh, court cases in Salt Lake City, there is a problem. I've, I had a chance to sit through hours, five and a half hours of arraignments, uh, recently to kind of see this in effect, where we have individuals that have been arrested dozens of times and are submitted to pretrial services and they, uh, those services are not being useful for those individuals. And that is coming at a cost. There are people that could utilize those services and get benefit from them that don't, and these individuals tend to cycle through the system. They are being, um, uh, victimized on our streets and they are being constantly cycled through our law enforcement, through our courts and, uh, eating up services in our pretrial services and other spaces. What this bill is seeking to do, um, is to identify those o uh, options available to judges that include a supervisory or financial component. Every individual is entitled to some sort of bail. Um, and this is not seeking to remove that. It is seeking to identify what services do we allow to individuals that are in this very frequent high utilizer population and what services out there have a supervisory or financial component to them, and to provide those options to those individuals. So those services can be better used for individuals that could provide benefit or receive benefit from 'em. And I will point out one last piece because this is, this is kind of important to me, and this is a personal piece. Many, many of, you know, I have a daughter that suffers from an extreme mental illness, one that she would likely be on the streets and one of those individuals that would be habitually, uh, in the system essentially if it wasn't for my wife and I and good medication and doctors. And I am very, very sensitive and aware to the population that falls into the space. But I will say that the victimization of these individuals face on the streets, um, is, is pretty significant. And that the op, if, if the options available for house arrest for GPS trackers, for inpatient mental care facilities, or for bail, or even for confinement in jail, in many cases, they would provide better services for some of those individuals, especially if they're facing addiction and have an opportunity to then, um, be able to detox and then transition to services that would actually be beneficial to 'em. So the outline of this bill outlines specifically individuals that fall under a particular criteria. If you look at the amendment, it clarifies that criteria that I've worked with the courts to, um, look at individuals that have prior convictions, and then if they have been charged with multiple crimes in a three year window, and it's at least five if they fall under that category. And then those individuals would need to have a supervisory form of release, uh, options rather than own recognizance, uh, type options. And this is, uh, effectively the, the, the bulk of the bill. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Uh, I actually, I take one, take it back. One last thing. The original bill had a, had a task force that was assembled using many different agencies to help identify with pretrial services, how to better these services, how to provide more supervi, uh, supervision to these individuals and to bring our pretrial services up to par with what the needs are for this community. Because of the fiscal note and the late time in the session, we decided to move that to a working group. Uh, so that was removed from the bill and that would report, I assume, to this committee.

  3. Committee chair1:38:34

     Okay. Thank you. Representative, Representative Loubet. Is it you? Okay. It, it's very confusing up here. So Representative Miller.

  4. Rep. Tracy Miller1:38:47

     Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, so I have a couple questions. Um, this bill would ultimately bar, uh, judges from granting own recognizance release if the defendant has priors within a three year period. Is that correct? Priors plus a certain high level of, of charges within a three year period?

  5. Rep. Matt MacPherson1:39:08

     Yes, both combined. Um, and so would that apply to, to jails if someone came in through, you know, qualify for, for, for being held without own recognizance release without these special conditions that that means the, the jail in this case wouldn't be able to, uh, release 'em on own recognizance either. Um, the current requirement under this section is speaking specifically to the magistrate or judge and not to the jails.

  6. Rep. Tracy Miller1:39:36

     Okay. Um, and this includes misdemeanors as well as felonies? Correct.

  7. Rep. Matt MacPherson1:39:41

     As far as convictions, prior convictions would exclude only traffic, uh, essentially misdemeanors and convictions. And then the charges would be, um, basically, uh, also excluding, um, uh, traffic violations, other, uh, criminal, uh, charges, misdemeanor or felony, uh, charges within a five-year window.

  8. Rep. Tracy Miller1:40:00

     And so all, all other, like class C, class B misdemeanors would qualify?

  9. Rep. Matt MacPherson1:40:03

     Correct. Uh, so someone could come in, for example, if, uh, ride tracks without taking, get a theft of services and then come back and then ultimately not qualify for own recognizance release. So if they'd been priorly convicted of a either misdemeanor or felony, and they had at least five of those types of charges or similar charges. Um, that's actually the, uh, the, an intended target of this group is there's individuals that are actually low level offenders currently. That those are the ones that are primarily, we're talking about those thousand that are, that are taking up nearly half of all of the court and the pretrial services, um, resources right now. And law enforcement resources tend to fall in the low level conviction category, which is where we're, we're, we're initially trying to target.

  10. Rep. Tracy Miller1:40:46

      I see. Thank you. That clarifies my questions. Thanks.

  11. Committee chair1:40:48

      Thank you, representative. All right. Seeing no further lights, we'll go to the public. Is there anyone here who would like to speak to this bill? I see one hand. Please. Come forward, rich. Oh, and another two hands. Thank you.

  12. Richard Mauro, Executive Director, Salt Lake Legal Defender Association1:41:07

      Thank you, Madam Chair. My name's Richard Morrow. I'm the Executive Director of the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association. Uh, while we support most of the concept of this bill, I think our concerns are the, the, the remedies are a little too narrow since HB three 12, um, passed, uh, which, which defined high utilizer. And this is essentially people that are similar to high utilizers that we're talking with here. We've done a lot of work in Salt Lake County to try to address those issues. Uh, and I think my concern is on, on, on the criteria here, and, and Representative MacPherson certainly is willing to continue talking with us, that it creates pretty narrow criteria for release. A lot of things are going on in Salt Lake County right now relative to how to deal with this population. We have fact teams, we have OTT teams, we have a number of different teams. We run a program through our office called Project Rio. It, it doesn't appear as though any of those sorts of things would allow people to be released. And since three 12 passed, I think, I think I know in Salt Lake County, there's been a significant effort to try to address the needs of this population. The other problem with this bill in its present state right now is that it doesn't, it doesn't really account for resources that we need to have. There's been some planning going on in Salt Lake County. Thank you. Sorry, relative to that. So, I'm sorry. I'm So Sorry Madam Chair. That's okay.

  13. Committee chair1:42:29

      We are at, we have a hard stop at 10 o'clock.

  14. Richard Mauro, Executive Director, Salt Lake Legal Defender Association1:42:32

      I understand. I'm sorry about that.

  15. Committee chair1:42:34

      No worries. Thanks, rich, please Proceed. Madam

  16. Carl Hollan, Executive Director, Statewide Association of Prosecutors1:42:36

      Chair, members of the committee. My name is Carl Hall. I'm the Executive Director of Statewide Association of Prosecutors. Uh, we wanna thank the sponsor for bringing this bill. This is a very complicated and complex area that we're trying to, uh, find new solutions for. Uh, and, and speaking to Mr. Morrow's points, uh, I know that there's a lot of conversations going on in this area. Uh, as I look at this bill, uh, the bill doesn't prevent people from being released. All it does is ensures that those people who have recidivated within a certain period of time must receive some sort of condition on their release. So it could be going into some of these projects Mr. Morrow talked about. It could be a, uh, bail, uh, requirement. Uh, but we don't believe that this is going to result in a lot of people being held in custody. Uh, thank you for your time.

  17. Committee chair1:43:29

      Thank you, Steve.

  18. Steve Burton, Director, Defense Attorney Association1:43:32

      Hello, committee, uh, Steve Burton from the Defense Attorney Association. Um, I also have a, a family member who suffers from severe mental illness, um, and I've had to Helper on in the criminal justice system. Um, and this is a person at various times in her life where she, um, wouldn't remember to take her socks off and going into the shower or walk out into the street without shoes on. Um, and it was not her fault. And, um, my concern is that if we take the approach of holding these people in jail, that we will not be solving the underlying problem. Um, we might be delaying it for 30 days or 60 days while their case gets adjudicated, but we won't be solving the problem. My hope is that we can find better solutions that address the underlying issues, and hopefully this task force or working group will allow us to do that.

  19. Committee chair1:44:24

      Thank you. All right. Back to the committee for for further questions or action. Representative Clancy.

  20. Rep. Clancy1:44:35

      Thank you Madam Chair. I'd like to make a motion we adopt first substitute P 5 93. Okay. The motion is to favorably recommend or to adopt first substitute house Bill 5 93. Would you like to speak to that? I, I'll, I'll speak when I speak to this. I'll speak to both. I, I hope to make a second motion, but I appreciate the work that's gone into us. I think that this will help people actually cool off and hopefully get the help that they need so that they don't end up in long-term incarceration, particularly if they're racking up multiple charges. Um, and I appreciate in the first substitute identifying that a judge can look at psychiatric, uh, and mental health care as well. I appreciate that from the sponsor and, and know that he is a very hard worker on this subject. So I'll be supporting, I will hope to make a second motion to support it through the committee.

  21. Committee chair1:45:23

      All right. To the sponsor, I appreciate the motion and remind the committee. I also need that first amendment as well. Amend amendment. Thank you. Okay. All all those in favor of adopting the first substitute, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Alright, that motion passes unanimously. Representative Clancy

  22. Rep. Clancy1:45:41

      Motion to adopt amendment number one. The motion is to adopt the first amendment to first substitute house bill 5 93. Would I speak to that waive to the sponsor?

  23. Rep. Matt MacPherson1:45:51

      This just has some clarification the courts asked for.

  24. Committee chair1:45:54

      All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. The bill is substituted and amended. Representative Clancy,

  25. Rep. Clancy1:46:03

      I'll motion that we pass out. First substitute HB 5 93 as amended through the committee onto the house floor. The motion is to favorably recommend first substitute house bill 5 93 as amended.

  26. Committee chair1:46:14

      Would you like to speak to that?

  27. Rep. Clancy1:46:16

      I'll waive to the sponsor because Our time is very short.

  28. Rep. Matt MacPherson1:46:19

      I will waive. Um, just thank you for the committee and I understand that I'm willing to continue to work on this.

  29. Committee chair1:46:25

      Thank you. And I'll just take the chair's prerogative really quick and say thank you so much for your work on this. This is something we've been working on for a number of years. I think you've really hit the sweet spot and I really appreciate all the work it took to get here. So thank you. Alright. Uh, we'll do a roll call. Vote. Jennifer. Representative Abbott? Yes. Acton? Yes. Ox Ter. Gracious Lube? Yes. Manga? Yes. Millard? No. Clancy? Yes. Libe? Yes. All right. The passes is almost unanimously. Thank you.

• Mar 3, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (3 turns)

  1. Speaker (presiding)5:11

     First substitute House Bill 5 93 Bail Amendments by Representative MacPherson. This bill will served in judiciary with a vote of 8 1 2

  2. Rep. Paul A. Cutler5:21

     Representative Cutler Motion to circle

  3. Speaker (presiding)5:24

     that motion is an order of sponsors off the floor. All in favor to say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Will that motion passes? The bills been circled. Madam Meeting Clerk

• Mar 3, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (20 turns)

  1. Speaker (presiding)19:47

     UNC circle, hb uh, 5 93. Let's go With that. Motion is an order representative. I will go ahead and place the motion. The motion before the house circle Uncer HB 5 93. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Rule that motion passes the bills, uncircled and before the body for its consideration. Back to you, Representative MacPherson.

  2. Rep. Matt MacPherson20:09

     Thank you Mr. Speaker. Uh, colleagues, this is a, uh, tricky bill and working on for some time

  3. Speaker (presiding)20:14

     Representatives. Representatives, we've gotta bring down the volume. Thank you. Back to your Representative, MacPherson.

  4. Rep. Matt MacPherson20:25

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So this bill, um, represents many months of hard work with, um, many of our different agencies. We've, uh, um, been organized with, uh, prosecutors, with the courts, with defense attorneys, with indigent defense, um, with, uh, pretrial services with the jails and the sheriffs. Um, and we've, we've, uh, ended up breaking this bill into two pieces. Um, this current piece of the bill is intending to solve only one problem. Currently in, um, in our courts, in some of our jurisdictions, we have a subset of individuals that are utilizing, um, and I use that word specifically, are courts, law enforcement, and pretrial services. At, at an ex, at a very high rate. Some data came out that about a thousand people in Salt Lake City, for example, are more than 43% of all charges currently going through our courts. What this bill seeks to do is identify those individuals that are just churning through our system. Those that have had prior convictions, multiple charges under a uh, period of time. Those that are just constantly cycling through our system typically are low level offenders that there's currently not any, um, action or power right now for the courts or for our prosecutors to, uh, provide any real solution. Many of them are homeless, are mentally ill, are drug addicted, or a combination of all three. Currently, under our current process, many of these individuals are released on their own recognizance, even after dozens of arrests and cycling through our system for years and years and years. What this bill seeks to do under this particular provision is to identify those individuals that have been, um, considered frequent utilizers of the system, have been, again, prior convictions, not including traffic convictions and multiple charges over a three year window. Under those circumstances, those individuals were asking when a, when a judge is in going through an arraignment, is going through the process of what to, what to do with that individual before trial. Keep in mind, many of these individuals have missed multiple court dates and have not shown up to their court appearances, um, and also have been continually arrested in most of these circumstances. Like I had said previously, they're released on their own recognizance. What this bill would try to do is limit those options available to the magistrate judge to only those services that have a supervisory or a financial component. Currently, every person in the United States is eligible for bail. That is a constitutional right. This does not change that. We have identified a number of services that currently have a supervisory element that includes things like house arrest, includes things like ankle monitors. Includes, includes things like inpatient mental healthcare, includes things, um, like bail, for example, actual cash bail. Um, also jail is always still an option for all law enforcement. They can also add onto any of these, any of the other lists of options that exist in the bill. And there are many. Now we've had some discussion with Salt Lake County, with the jail, with Indi Indigent Defense and with our mental health services. There are potentially some additional, um, services that might also be included on here, including, um, civil con confine, uh, civil commitment, which we are actively looking at adding right now. As well as there are some pretrial services that believe that they can offer a supervisory component that we're looking to add into this space. But because of the timing of it and because of its current status, broad support, generally speaking with some concern still on making sure we're getting the policy right. This bill currently in its current form does not include those. It would have to come out in a substitute or in a, in an amendment on the Senate side. That's the policy consideration. I ask for your, uh, support, but at the same time, I'm open to any questions.

  5. Speaker (presiding)24:52

     Thank you Representative MacPherson discussion to the bill Representative Dunnigan.

  6. Rep. Jordan Dunnigan24:58

     Thank you Mr. Speaker with the sponsor yield.

  7. Speaker (presiding)25:01

     Hang on. Representative Dunnigan representatives. Much better. Thank you.

  8. Rep. James A. Dunnigan25:08

     Representative MacPherson, I will you yield?

  9. Rep. Matt MacPherson25:10

     Yes. Representative Dunnigan,

  10. Rep. James A. Dunnigan25:11

      I I want to thank the, uh, representative for meeting with the Salt Lake County jail leaders. They have the, by far, the largest jail. They've got 2200 or plus inmates that they're big, they're full. And I actually support what you're trying to do these, you know, frequent flyers and frequent releasers. Knowing the jail's full pretrial can become a very important service. I just, I, I listened to your comments, but it sounds like it's your intent to continue to work with the jail staff and try, try to find a, a policy that will work and not exasperate their overcrowding problem. Would you address that?

  11. Rep. Matt MacPherson25:50

      Yes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Um, after working with Pretrial Services previously, they believed that, um, their services did not meet the standard of the supervisory component. But after speaking with the Salt Lake County Jail and some of their pretrial services, they believe that several of their, uh, pretrial services may actually meet the standard. And so we are actively yes, trying to come up with a way to amend the current statute to separate pretrial services into two categories, those categories, which most of our services fall under right now, which don't offer a supervisory component. And those that do, that would take a huge load off of, and it's the, the request from the Salt Lake County Jail. If we could add those pretrial services back into the mix, if they can meet that requirement, that that would take a huge load off of, um, uh, of any potential, uh, increase in incarceration that may be, uh, happening under this bill.

  12. Rep. James A. Dunnigan26:46

      Thank you. And, and it's your intent to try to amend that or substitute that into this bill to give them those additional tools, is that correct?

  13. Rep. Matt MacPherson26:54

      Yes, absolutely. My, uh, my meeting with them was just minutes ago, which is why I wasn't on the floor and we circled this bill. Um, and so it's, it's a work in progress right now, but I'm unfortunately unable to get it out in the next few minutes.

  14. Rep. James A. Dunnigan27:07

      Alright, thank you Mr. Speaker.

  15. Speaker (presiding)27:11

      Thank you rep Sam d Dunnigan. Further discussion to the bill rep Sam Zaby.

  16. Unknown speaker27:18speaker not certain

      Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill. This policy has been a long time. Coming in is the culmination of many, many policies that we've been working on over the last several years regarding repeat offenders, regarding pretrial services regarding bail for individuals who are incarcerated or who have been arrested. So this is a really important policy to address some of the major loopholes that still exist in our criminal justice system. And we have data to show that in the largest county in Utah, that about 43% of the crimes are committed by 1000 individuals. And so it's really important that we address these repeat offenders. This is a way to do it, and I commend the sponsor for his good work on this bill.

  17. Speaker (presiding)28:07

      Thank you, representative Zabe. Uh, further discussion to the bill. Seeing none. Back to Representative MacPherson for summation. Thank

  18. Rep. Matt MacPherson28:16

      You, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the conversation on this. Again, I'm committed to continue to work on making those adjustments, um, in order to minimize the impact that would have on some of our county jails. Um, but understanding that this is an issue that affects more than just our jails. It affects more than just the individuals that may, for example, the homeless or the, or, those that are, um, mentally ill or those that are drug addicted that fall into this population. There's more considerations than just that group as well. There's considerations on how this impacts the community, how it impacts our law enforcement and our courts, how it impacts our pretrial services, that they're providing these services to individuals that aren't getting a benefit from 'em. And essentially, those services are not being applied to those individuals that could provide benefit from them. So this is a way to try to get those services more targeted to those people that can get help from 'em. And at the same time, to help the communities that have been grossly impacted by, um, this kind of issue that kind of grew out of the JRI adjustments. We know that this has been a long time coming. Um, I know it's not entirely perfect, and there's other aspects of this that we need to keep working on, and I'm committed to do that, uh, both here and, uh, into, uh, the next session.

  19. Speaker (presiding)29:31

      Thank you. Representative MacPherson voting will now be open on first substitute HB 5 93. Representative Okerlund present president, having Boone is now closed. First HB 5 93 passes this body with 56 yes votes, 15 no votes will be sent to the Senate for its consideration.

  20. Speaker (presiding)30:44

      Representative MacPherson