Westword -- Searching For His Identity - Newest Installment on Casey

Casey's story illuminates the problem of getting an identification in Colorado. CCJRC is supporting HB 1313 which will allow people to get an ID using their Colorado Department of Corrections ID card along with a supporting document. It's often the only form of identification that people have once they are released and it is vital that they are able to get an ID in order to be successful. HB 1313 is supposed to be heard in second reading in the Senate today or Monday, we will keep you updated. Please call or email your Senator to explain to them how important this bill is. If you would like to read the text for the bill, it is imbedded in a link in this story. As always, hats off to Alan.

Filed under: I Shall Be Released

Casey Holden has a job, a bank account and an identification card issued by the State of Colorado. But in the eyes of many government agencies and private employers, he doesn’t quite exist. He lacks the essential paper trail.

Holden, 26, lost track of his vital personal records — birth certificate, Social Security card — over the past decade, most of which has been spent in prisons of one kind or another, including the state supermax. Now that he’s out on parole, a journey back to Citizenville he’s letting us follow by blog (see previous entries here), he’s finding out just how much of a nonperson a former prisoner can be.

Holden has a Colorado Department of Corrections ID card, but it’s regarded as something less than proof positive in this era of heightened identity-theft hysteria. “It makes no sense,” he says. “You can’t get no more state than this. You just look up my mug shot on the DOC website, and I’m there.”

His driver’s license expired long ago. Under tightened state rules, getting a new one has been an experience that Kafka’s bureaucracy-bedeviled Joseph K. could appreciate. He’s had to track down a copy of his birth certificate, replace his Social Security card and wade through forms and more forms. Fortunately, Mesa State College accepted his DOC ID when he enrolled there, and the student ID and his expired license got him an account with a local bank.

Casey's Story