Tag: criminal justice
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PERSPECTIVE: Colorado’s Legion of Doom under the Gold Dome
As a kid growing up in Colorado, I loved watching the animated series The Super Friends, who fought against evil and for good as a part of the Justice League. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and more. They were opposed by the Legion of Doom and its cast of villains, always fighting for wrong over right. Colorado has its…
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Colorado becomes first state to ban arrests solely based on field drug test results
Colorado has become the first state in the nation to prohibit arrests based solely on colorimetric drug tests, also known as field drug tests. Last legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill establishing a working group to make recommendations regarding the use of colorimetric drug tests in criminal proceedings. Colorimetric drug tests were used in about half of all drug…
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Lawsuit alleges Polis administration is holding juveniles after court‑ordered release
Colorado officials are facing a lawsuit alleging the state kept minors in juvenile detention for days or months after judges ordered them released, largely because appropriate foster or community placements were not available. Two minors facing juvenile delinquency charges sued Gov. Jared Polis and the director of the state’s Department of Human Services, alleging the…
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PERSPECTIVE: Jailbreak — Legislative Dems look to empty Colorado’s prisons
Colorado Democrats are working feverishly this legislative session to increase the rate at which convicted felons are released from our prisons back onto our streets. They claim they must, because of overcrowding and cost. Do not fall for that lie. Colorado’s prison overcrowding “crisis” is the predictable, deliberate and unnecessary outcome of Democrat political decision-making that has long prioritized…
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‘Everything happens for a reason’: Veterans Trauma Court aims to help military members in times of need
Five years after he separated from the Army, Mark Bisset found himself in the Colorado criminal justice system. Bisset’s story started on April 9, 2022. According to past Gazette coverage of the case, the arrest stemmed from an alleged incident in which Bisset rode a four-wheeler to a property in the Indian Creek subdivision in…
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PERSPECTIVE: The pendulum has swung too far
There is middle ground between mercy and justice. That is what Colorado’s leaders should search for in its criminal justice system. For more than a decade, Colorado has devoted extraordinary energy to reshaping its criminal justice system trying to meet this balance. Reformers, in good faith, have pushed to reduce incarceration, expand alternatives to…
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COLORADO POLITICS | Advocates discuss Colorado’s soaring crime, notably rise in fentanyl deaths
In a March 1 forum organized by Colorado Politics and the Denver Gazette, panelists offer diagnoses and potential solutions to the soaring crime rate in Colorado, including rise in fentanyl deaths.