Colorado Newsline
Colorado Democrats rebranded their jail depopulation bill. Here’s what’s changed.
Aim is still to limit arrests and use of cash bail for low-level offenses, but the new bill excludes nonviolent felony offenses
Elisabeth Epps, founder of the Colorado Freedom Fund, visited the Denver jail on Aug. 4, 2020, to bail out three men. Epps has been a driving force in conversations surrounding bail reform in the state and helped spearhead legislation introduced in 2021 to limit the use of cash bail. (John Herrick for Colorado Newsline)
Jonathan Cespedes believes that his mother, Susan, would still be alive today if she’d been allowed to be released on bond instead of awaiting trial in the El Paso County jail for an alleged financial crime committed in another state. The 55-year-old woman died in 2019 after trying to seek medical attention from jail staff for weeks, according to court documents.
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Mesa County Public Health Director Jeff Kuhr and Montrose County Commissioner Sue Hansen were chosen to serve on a special state panel to help determine how to disperse opioid lawsuit settlement money.
The two were among 13 appointed by Gov. Jared Polis this week to the Opioid Crisis Recovery Funds Advisory Committee, a panel called for under a bill the Colorado Legislature approved in 2019 to help deal with such funds.
Thirteen other members are to be designated by various state agencies and private associations, such as the Colorado Municipal League and the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police.
The 26-member panel didnât have to be formed until the state saw its first opioid-related settlement agreement, which happened in February when Colorado and several other states reached a settlement with McKinsey & Co.
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
There are a lot of people out there who are opposed to the preemption of gun laws in a state. They don’t like that local governments can’t infringe on our rights without going through the state legislature. In some states, they know that’s not going to happen, so they want the laws that keep local governments from doing so repealed.
Again, in some states, they know it’s not going to happen.
However, there’s a certain hypocrisy in the anti-preemption talk in Colorado, where Democrats are advancing legislation to get rid of the state’s preemption law.
The third of three bills intended to address gun violence in Colorado cleared a state Senate panel on Tuesday, with emotional testimony from gun control advocates and, for the first time, opposition testimony from U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Silt.
Senate Bill 256 would repeal a 2003 law that bars local governments from enacting stricter gun control laws than the state standard. Known as pre-emption, sponsors noted that there is a precedent for the law, one enacted in 2003 that allowed concealed carry weapons in certain public places, including college campuses, even in communities where concealed carry isn’t legal.
SB 256 specifically allows local governments to enact laws to ban concealed carry weapons in their jurisdictions, and that’s what drew dozens of witnesses to testify against the bill, more than those who testified against two previous gun control bills passed in House committees last week.
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