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.


Sunday, January 03, 2010

Greene: Securing forensic evidence a path to justice - The Denver Post

Greene: Securing forensic evidence a path to justice - The Denver Post

Clarence Moses-EL may spend the rest of his life behind bars as the face of a national problem that too long has gone ignored.

From prison, the Colorado inmate won a judge's permission to test the DNA evidence from a rape for which he says he was wrongfully convicted. He managed to raise $1,000 from fellow inmates to pay for the lab work. Denver police wrapped up the evidence and labeled the box, "DO NOT DESTROY."

Nevertheless, it got tossed in the trash.

Nearly 25 years since the dawn of the DNA era, there still are no federal safeguards preventing local authorities from destroying traces of human biology that can free the wrongfully convicted or help crack unsolved cases. Nobody on a national level has taken a meaningful look at preservation.

Until now.

The Obama administration this month is launching a federal working group to recommend standards for preserving forensic evidence.

"The aim is national guidelines that can be adopted by law enforcement, courts and anyone else who's responsible for storing evidence, especially long term," says Mark Stolorow of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.


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