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CCJRC
Weekly Legislative Update
May 4, 2015
Winter – Spring 2015
We are in the final 3 days of the 2015 legislative session and there are still a lot of moving parts. SB124 (parole
technical violations) passed unanimously out of House Judiciary last week and we have been told it will be heard today
in House Appropriations. It will then need to pass out of the House floor. HB1061 (prohibiting municipal domestic
violence record sealing) is being laid over daily on the House floor and is likely to die on the calendar. We saw the
homeless bill of rights bill (HB1264) die last week, as well as several of the police accountability bills.
The great news is that HB 1303 passed unanimously out of both Senate Committees and will be passed by the full
Senate today! This bill will repeal the minimum mandatory sentence for 2nd degree assault on a peace officer, EMT or
other first responder. This will be the first time a minimum mandatory sentence has been repealed in Colorado.
Stay tuned for our legislative wrap up, including vote counts on key criminal justice bills, in the upcoming weeks.
CCJRC Priority bills
SB15-124 Concerning the use of evidence-based practice in response to technical violations of parole
Sponsors: Senator Merrifield (D-Colorado Springs) & Representative Lee (D-Colorado Springs)
CCJRC Position: Priority- Active Support
Status: Passed House Judiciary Committee – Sent to House Appropriations
Description: SB 124 requires that parole officers utilize all available intermediate sanctions and community support
services prior to filing a complaint for revocation with the Parole Board unless the nature of the technical violation and
a parolee’s criminal history creates a high risk for re-offense. Also allows the DOC to use short jail terms (no more than
5 days) as an intermediate sanction for a parolee who has had a pattern of technical violations instead of revocation.
Rationale for CCJRC’s position: Last year, almost 4,000 people were re-incarcerated for a technical violation of parole.
Evidence-based practice research indicates that effective responses to technical violations are sure, swift, and
proportional – not severe, like revocation and incarceration back in prison. In September 2014, DOC began a “sure &
swift” pilot program that prioritized using intermediate sanctions, including short jail terms. The pilot has reduced the
number of parole revocations and SB 124 will scale out this pilot statewide.
HB15-1043 Felony Offense for Repeat DUI Offenders
Sponsors: Representatives Saine (R) and McCann (D) & Senators Cooke (R) and Johnston (D)
CCJRC Position: Oppose
Status: Up for 2nds on Senate Floor – Tues. 5/5/15
Description: As amended out of the House Finance Committee, the bill creates a class 4 felony if the DUI, DUI per se, or
DWAI violation occurred after 3 or more prior convictions during one’s lifetime. The bill also expands the timeline that
a person must use an interlock device from one year to a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 5 years. Any person
convicted of a felony DUI offense would be required to use an interlock device during the entire period of the person’s
parole. The bill, as amended, would allow someone convicted of a misdemeanor DUI to be eligible for placement in
community corrections as a condition of probation to access residential treatment. Another amendment requires the
court to “exhaust remedies” before sentencing someone to prison for a felony DUI. The estimated 5-year cost for
incarceration, even as amended, is $27.8 million.
Rationale for CCJRC’s position: CCJRC agrees that DUI and, especially DUI accidents and fatalities are a preventable
tragedy and more needs to be done to prevent and reduce repeat offenses. According to the Centers for Disease
Control, only 1% of all DUI episodes result in arrest. The National Transportation Safety Board reported that 71% of all
alcohol-related fatalities were committed by a driver with NO prior convictions for DUI. HB 1043 has no strategies to
address the 99% of all DUIs that will not come into the criminal justice system because there was no arrest. The
current DUI treatment delivery system also is not as effective as it needs to be, including a much more robust capacity
to address both alcohol addiction and co-occurring mental health issues that occurs in more than half of people with
repeat DUI offenses. CCJRC believes that HB 1043 is focusing on the highest cost – lowest impact strategy of just
creating a felony and incarcerating several hundred people a year. CCJRC does not unilaterally oppose the creation of a
felony for serious repeat DUI offenses. However, HB 1043 is not comprehensive and the research indicates that it will
not have much effect, despite its tremendous cost. CCJRC believes that comprehensive DUI reform is needed and
needs to include strategies in prevention, treatment, law enforcement, public education, expansion of alternative
transportation, and data collection.
HB15-1061 No Record Sealing Municipal Domestic Violence
Sponsors: Representative Van Winkle (R) & Senator Roberts (R)
CCJRC Position: Support – refer to Commission on Criminal & Juvenile Justice
Status: Passed House Judiciary - Up for 2nds on the House Floor – laid over daily
Description: As amended, the bill encourages the Colorado Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ) to consider appropriate
measures, including a prohibition, on record sealing a municipal domestic violence conviction when analyzing and
evaluating collateral consequences issues.
HB15-1303 Sentencing for Certain 2nd Degree Assaults
Sponsors: Representative Melton (D)
CCJRC Position: Support
Status: Up for 3rd and final reading in the Senate – Mon. 5/4/15
Description: As amended, the bill repeals mandatory minimum sentences for 2nd degree assault against a police officer,
firefighter or first responder, unless a person intentionally causes serious bodily injury.
Rationale for CCJRC’s position: Research shows that mandatory minimum sentences are not effective tools for the
prevention of crime and are not evidence-based. Mandatory minimum sentences prevent courts from imposing a
sentence that is individualized to the defendant and specific circumstances. In practice, mandatory minimum
sentences effectively suppress a defendant’s right to trial because going to trial and losing is too risky and people end
up taking plea bargains. Mandatory minimums are also disproportionately charged. Recent research in Denver shows
that 9.9% of the population of Denver is African American and approximately 30% of the 2nd degree assault on a peace
officer charges are filed against African Americans.
SB15-184 No Detention for Failure to Attend School
Sponsors: Senator Holbert (R) & Representative Fields (D)
CCJRC Position: Support
Status: Up for 3rd and final reading in the House – Mon. 5/4/15
Description: As amended, the bill requires the chief judge of each judicial district to convene a meeting of stakeholders
to create a policy for addressing truancy cases that seeks alternatives to the use of detention as a sanction. The policy
that is created in each judicial district will be adopted by each chief judge no later than March 15, 2016.
Rationale for CCJRC’s position: CCJRC supports the overarching goal of this legislation which is to prevent children
from being placed in detention for truancy. When a child is placed in detention, s/he is transferred in shackles to a
Division of Youth Corrections facility where they are stripped searched as part of the admission process. CCJRC
believes that under no circumstance should a child be shackled and stripped search for truancy, which isn’t even a
criminal offense.
SB15-185 Police Data Collection and Community Policing
Sponsors: Senator Johnston (D) & Representative Fields (D)
CCJRC Position: Monitor
Status: Up for 3rd and final reading in the House – Mon. 5/4/15
Description: As amended, the bill creates the “Community Law Enforcement Action Reporting (CLEAR) Act.” Under the
act, the Division of Criminal Justice (DCJ) will compile and report data to the Judiciary Committees and the CCJJ on an
annual basis. The data includes arrest data already reported to the CBI by law enforcement agencies; charging,
disposition, sentencing, and defendant demographic data from the Judicial Department; and parole hearing, offender
demographic, and parole outcome data from the DOC. Law enforcement, the Judicial Department, and DOC are
required to provide prior calendar year data to the DCJ by Jan. 31st of each year. The DCJ is required to distribute a
report by March 31st of each year.
Police Accountability legislation:
SB15-219 Peace Officer Shootings Transparency Measures
Sponsors: Senators Cooke (R) and Roberts (R) & Representative Salazar (D)
Status: Conference Committee requested
Description: Requires each law enforcement agency to develop protocols for participating in a multi-agency team
within each judicial district, or another law enforcement agency, in the investigation of a peace-officer involved
shooting. Requires a district attorney who declines to file criminal charges against a peace officer for a peace-officer
involved shooting to make a report and publicly disclose the report explaining the district attorneys findings.
Bills that have passed and are awaiting the Governor’s signature:
HB15-1203 Earned time for habitual offenders serving life
Sponsors: Rep Rosenthal (D) and Sen. Steadman (D)
CCJRC Position: Priority Support (CCJJ recommendation)
HB15-1229 Concerning Retaliation Against a Prosecutor
Sponsors: Representative McCann (D) & Senator Martinez Humenik (R)
CCJRC Position: Monitor-since amended
HB15-1267 Use of Medical Marijuana During Probation
Sponsors: Representative Salazar (D) & Senator Guzman (D)
CCJRC Position: Monitor
HB15-1290 Stop Police Interference Cop Incident Recordings
Sponsors: Representatives Salazar (D) and Esgar (D) & Senator Guzman (D)
SB15-195 Spending Savings from Earned Time in DOC
Sponsors: Senator Steadman (D) & Representative Hamner (D)
CCJRC Position: Monitor
SB15-217 Police Shooting Data Collection
Sponsors: Senators Roberts (R) and Cooke (R) & Representative Williams (D)
SB15-218 Disclose Misrepresentations by Peace Officers
Sponsors: Senators Roberts (R) and Cooke (R) & Representative Williams (D)
Bills that have been signed by the Governor:
SB15-058 Eyewitness Identification Policies and Procedures
Sponsors: Senator Guzman (D) & Representative Kagan (D)
CCJRC Position: Support (lead organization: Colorado Criminal Defense Bar)
SB15-116 Needle Stick Prevention
Sponsors: Senator Steadman (D) & Representative Garnett (D)
CCJRC Position: Support
SB15-053 Standing Orders for Naloxone
Sponsors: Senator Aguilar (D) & Representatives McCann (D) and Lontine (D)
CCJRC Position: Support
HB15-1122 Parole Application and Revocation
Sponsors: Representative Fields (D) & Senator Cooke (R)
CCJRC Position: Neutral (after amendments made)
HB15-1042 Concerning requiring presentence reports to include information concerning the amount of time a
defendant is expected to actually spend in incarceration
Sponsors: Representative Foote (D) & Senator Cooke (R)
Bills that have been postponed indefinitely (died):
SB15-006 Prohibit Forfeitures Without Criminal Conviction
Sponsors: Senator Woods (R) & Representative Saine (R)
SB15-007 Community Corrections Board Standards
Sponsors: Senator Guzman (D) & Representative Willett (R)
HB15-1087 Alcohol and Substance Abuse Medical Detox Centers
Sponsors: Representative Vigil (D) & Senators Steadman (D) and Jahn (D)
HB15-1091 Policies on Juvenile Shackling in Court
Sponsors: Representative Lontine (D) &Senator Merrifield (D)
HB15-1240 Reduce Student Contacts with Law Enforcement
Sponsors: Representative Fields (D) & Senator Balmer (R)
HB15-1263 Criminal Record Sealing
Sponsors: Representatives Lebsock (D) and Tate (R)
HB15-1264 Homeless Persons’ Bill of Rights
Sponsors: Representatives Salazar (D) and Melton (D) & Senator Kefalas (D)
HB15-1285 Law Enforcement Use of Body-Worn Cameras
Sponsors: Representatives Kagan (D) and Williams (D) & Senators Cooke (R) and Ulibarri (D)
HB15-1286 Police Misconduct Court Require Prosecution
Sponsors: Representatives Kagan (D) and Salazar (D)
HB15-1287 Police Officer Training Improvements
Sponsors: Representative Williams (D) & Senator Cooke (R)
HB15-1288 Updates to Profiling Prohibition
Sponsors: Representative Williams (D) & Senator Carroll (D)
HB15-1289 Criminal Charges Based on Unlawful Order
Sponsors: Representatives Salazar (D) and Everett (R)
HB12-1291 Prohibit Peace Officer Use of Chokehold
Sponsors: Representative Melton (D)
HB15-1292 Resentence Juveniles Life Sentence No Parole
Sponsors: Representative Kagan (D)
HB15-1312 DNA Collection Misdemeanor Offenses
Sponsors: Representatives Pabon (D) and Lawrence (R) & Senators Cooke (R) and Johnston (D)