Colorado Springs’ $103,000 settlement over debtors’ prison tactics comes as similar practices have come under fire by state lawmakers.

Two bills are on the governor’s desk awaiting his veto or signature – one of them regarding a “loophole” to a ban putting people in jail for failing to pay municipal fines and penalties. 

House Bill 1311 would prohibit municipal judges from jailing people without a hearing when they fail to make scheduled payments or fail to appear for court dates.

Instead, a defendant would have to be notified of a new court date to determine why a payment wasn’t made – ensuring that person wasn’t immediately jailed for not paying fines.

The Colorado Municipal League has opposed that bill, fearing defendants would refuse to appear in court to even discuss payments – leaving their cases to stretch on indefinitely.

Another bill, House Bill 1309 took aim at a slightly different issue, one requiring municipal courts to provide defendants being held in jail to have access to a public defender at their first appearance.

The ACLU says the bill is critical to ensuring indigent defendants don’t plead guilty at that hearing as a means to quickly end their case.

Defendants with financial means usually don’t face that decision, because they can often bond out of jail before the hearing.

But Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, has been lobbied hard by municipalities that see it as an unfunded mandate – one requiring a public defender to be in court on first appearance.

Meghan Dollar with the Colorado Municipal League said the bill would cost cities millions of dollars to provide that counsel.

“We would need to contract with attorneys to have them sit and wait and potentially not even work,” Dollar said.