Panel Recommends Changes

The state should give paroled inmates more money when they walk out of prison, and people who commit nondriving offenses should not have their driver's license taken away.

Those are just two of the 66 recommendations in the first-ever report released Thursday from the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice. The commission, formed by Gov. Bill Ritter and lawmakers in 2007, plans to produce a report on the justice system every year.

Evan Dreyer, a spokesman for Ritter — a Democrat who previously served as Denver's district attorney — said the governor was reviewing the recommendations.

Some of the recommendations require legislative approval, but others can simply be implemented by state Department of Corrections officials or the justice system.

The 27-member commission includes legislators, law-enforcement officials, judges, prosecutors, criminal-defense attorneys, advocates for victims and Attorney General John Suthers.

One recommendation calls for eliminating the mandatory revocation or suspension of driver's licenses for people convicted of nondriving offenses. The penalty doesn't deter crime and makes it harder for offenders to get their acts together, the panel said.

"Driver's license revocation inhibits one's ability to work, receive or attend treatment or other appointments in a timely manner, provide useful public service, or even meet with supervising officers," the panel said in its recommendations.

The recommendation specifically excepts the loss of a license for failure to pay child support.

The panel also said inmates paroled for the first time should get more money upon leaving prison. Since the early 1970s, outgoing inmates have gotten $100, and the amount should be increased to nearly $500 for first-time parolees, the panel recommended.

"We probably can't afford it right now, but it's a conversation we should have," said House Speaker-designee Terrance Carroll, a Denver Democrat who sits on the commission. "You send someone out of the gate with $100, and it doesn't get them very far."

Christie Donner, executive director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, cited the commission's call for trying to reduce the number of people who go to prison for technical violations of their probation or parole — currently about 5,000 people a year, she said.

These violations might include not paying a fine or not showing up for an appointment.

"It's easy to revoke (probation or parole) and just throw people in prison, but it's extremely expensive to do that," Donner said.

She added, though, "The idea isn't just that you turn a blind eye" to violations but provide more intensive services.

The Denver Post