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.


Saturday, October 10, 2009

Ex Prison Director In Exile After Court

Colorado Springs Gazette
A former state prisons official who retired under a cloud in 2006 pleaded guilty in Fremont County this week to harassing his estranged wife and persuading a state employee to run a restricted background check on her boyfriend.

Nolin Lee Renfrow — who began his 27-year career as a prison guard and rose to become director of prisons for the state Department of Corrections — is now banned from entering a 12-county swath of central Colorado.

The unusual restriction was part of plea agreement reached Monday in a Cañon City courtroom that allowed Renfrow to avoid a prison sentence.

The case involved a complaint from Renfrow’s then-wife, who told police that Renfrow repeatedly violated a restraining order she filed Aug. 11, 2008, after an earlier incident in which he allegedly he kicked down her front door during a quarrel over their ongoing divorce.

Prosecutors alleged that Renfrow or an accomplice sneaked into her yard — from which Renfrow had been banned — and took down the license plate of her boyfriend’s pickup parked next to her house.

On Jan. 21, Renfrow persuaded a prison security worker to run the plate through a state investigative database maintained by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and restricted to law enforcement agencies.

At the time, the retired prisons boss was working with Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., which won a state contract to help build a prison complex in Cañon City. Renfrow told the security officer that the license plate was from a vehicle that had been abandoned at the construction site.

He ended up calling the boyfriend’s employers and telling them about the man’s relationship with his estranged wife.

Renfrow pleaded guilty to three counts of violating a protection order and one count of false reporting, all misdemeanors.  Prosecutors agreed to dismiss a felony count of stalking and five felony counts of intimidating a victim.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who were the prosecutors and why was this felon given preferential treatment??djw

Unknown said...

Oh how nice for him, to have 6 felony charges just dismissed. Must be nice to be "special" and "above the law".

Anonymous said...

It should be well understood by now that these criminal 'justice' types have immunity and many of them are running the courts. It's beyond chaos. There is NO public safety!

What is very alarming about this escape from criminal behavior, is the safety of his ex-wife and everyone involved in her life. I suspect, sadly, this will not be the last we hear about Renfrow. Public safety is compromised. I can never take the statement that public safety is #1 at the DOC meetings partly because of situations such as this one. I doubt Mr. Zavaras can explain the immense corruption in the system.

Any 'commoner' would have been given a huge prison sentence.

Anonymous said...

they should have put him in prison for violating his wife. Why was he given such special treatment against a woman. Many men in prison for less Here's our sign on dirty law.

Anonymous said...

My husband got 2 years for breaking in a door. Go figure.