Tag: parole
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Colorado policymakers scramble with prisons on track to exceed capacity
Colorado’s prison system is on track to exceed capacity within the next year, driven by a sharp slowdown in parole releases, staffing shortages and an aging inmate population — all as lawmakers grapple with an $800 million general fund shortfall that limits options for expanding beds or spending in alternative programs. If projections hold, the…
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EDITORIAL: ‘Crowded’ prisons = safer Colorado
Let’s welcome news reported by The Gazette this week that Colorado’s prison population is on the rise, with more lawbreakers reportedly behind bars for parole violations. That’s encouraging in a state that has weathered an epic crime wave in recent years, often enough at the hands of parolees. The surge in our prison population reflects…
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Colorado justices consider 33-year-old analogy’s impact on community corrections sentences
The Colorado Supreme Court pondered an unusual question on Wednesday: When a previous decision relied on an analogy, but the circumstances of the analogy have since changed, is the prior decision still valid? Ryan Wallace Bonde’s appeal to the Supreme Court explores whether Bonde’s time in non-residential community corrections can be deducted from the prison…
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After hearing from Colorado’s justices, 10th Circuit rules defendant cannot challege parole eligibility — yet
The federal appeals court based in Denver ruled on Monday that a defendant who is serving a potential life sentence for crimes he committed as a 15 year old cannot pursue a constitutional challenge now to any future decision about his parole eligibility. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit reached its decision…
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Appeals court says man cannot escape conviction for attempting to influence public servant by blaming mom
Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that the crime of attempting to influence a public servant does not require the defendant to personally be the one making the deceptive statement. In answering the question for the first time, a three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals upheld a man’s conviction despite his effort to blame…
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Top Dollar Pawn defendant denied probation, sentenced to prison
Walt Mauro, one of the four co-defendants in the Top Dollar Pawn money-laundering case, was sentenced Tuesday to five years in the Colorado Department of Corrections with a three-year minimum for parole. Each of the four defendants — Daria Mauro, Walt Mauro, Mischa Jargowsky and Jack Jargowsky — face 29 charges, including a pattern of…
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Colorado justices ponder parole requirements for juvenile sex offenders amid constitutional challenge
Colorado’s justices on Tuesday appeared to believe the state law authorizing lengthy sentences for adult sex offenders does, when applied to juveniles, account for the guardrails necessary to comply with the U.S. Constitution. However, that determination would only be a piece of the larger puzzle, due to the unusual manner in which the case of…