Think Outside the Cage: Tim Masters Back In Ft. Collins

Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

If you would like to be involved please go to our website and become a member.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Tim Masters Back In Ft. Collins

After nearly a decade, Tim Masters returned to Fort Collins this afternoon. He could be a free man within 24 hours.

On Sunday, in his mind's eye, Masters could imagine the moment clearly - a packed courtroom, a judge's ruling, a bang of the gavel and freedom.

It never occurred to him that he'd be sitting in prison on a Friday afternoon, flipping through a book on Chevrolet engines, when he'd get a phone call that would mean he was tantalizingly close to being released from prison.

"It's not completely sunk in yet," he said in a telephone interview Sunday afternoon from the Buena Vista Correctional Complex. "Hopefully, it will feel real really soon."

It had been 48 hours since Masters, 35, had learned that he was on the verge of seeing his murder conviction overturned.

"I never imagined it would go down like this," he said. "I thought it would be in court. The way things were going, I expected this to last into the summer at least."

The Rocky Mountain News