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, February 04, 2008

Feds Try To Halt Access To Prisoners

A group of Denver law students fighting to overturn some regulations at the Supermax prison in Colorado has found that the very rules they are fighting might bar them from continuing to represent the convicted terrorists.

After letters from three men housed in Supermax were found with terrorism suspects in Spain, federal officials issued sweeping new rules forbidding inmates from writing letters to those outside immediate family, reading the classified ads in newspapers and attending prison religious services.

The government is now arguing that the rules, called special administrative measures, or SAMs, should also forbid prison visits by University of Denver law students who are representing two of the terrorists in a civil-rights lawsuit against the government. The suit, filed in Denver's U.S. District Court, alleges that the measures violate the inmates' civil rights.

In January, Judge Wiley Y. Daniel granted the students access to Nidal Ayyad and Mahmud Abouhalima over the objection of the U.S. attorney's office.

But on Wednesday, the government asked the judge to reconsider and filed a motion to put the students' access on hold while an appeal is pending.


The Denver Post

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