Lawmakers Wise to Back Off

The Denver Post

Democratic leaders in the state legislature made the right call when they announced Tuesday that they were shifting gears on a major criminal justice reform bill.

Instead of attempting to cram through a wide-ranging overhaul of the state's sentencing system in the waning days of the session, lawmakers said they would instead ask a state panel to examine the issues and make recommendations to legislators.

It's a wise move that should give interested parties a chance to weigh in on proposed changes, which have the potential to profoundly affect criminal penalties. As we said in a Sunday editorial, sentencing reform is a timely idea given Colorado's budget problems, but it would be irresponsible to make such dramatic changes without thoughtful analysis and debate.

Senate Bill 286 was intended to reduce prison populations — and prison costs — by reducing sentencing ranges for non-violent, property and some drug crimes. As the proportion of the state budget spent on prisons grows ever larger, we believe there is room for well-reasoned and targeted reform.

We were glad to see Senate Majority Leader Brandon Shaffer among those putting the brakes on SB 286, which was written with significant input from the defense bar, but not so much from prosecutors, who voiced concerns about the bill.

In a prepared statement, Shaffer said legislators realized "that with a little more than two weeks left in the session, this topic needs more discussion."

This is a promising show of leadership from the incoming Senate president.

Senate Democrats said they would amend the bill, sponsored by Sens. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, and Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, to ask the criminal justice commission to come up with recommendations. More details are expected to be released today, but we would hope the commission would move with significant speed so as to have a raft of well-vetted recommendations by the next legislative session, which begins in eight months.

This should give staff adequate time to calculate potential cost savings from any proposed changes. Along with public safety and sentencing fairness, it's important to know whether such moves will reduce expenses and by how much.