DENVER - Statement of ACLU of Colorado Public Policy Director Denise Maes on HB 1328, a bill to protect Colorado children from solitary confinement, which was approved today by the Colorado House of Representatives, after passing the Senate unanimously last week.

“The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado commends the Colorado legislature for taking action to protect children from inhumane and dangerous solitary confinement.  HB 1328 puts in place permanent guardrails and oversight measures to ensure that the Colorado Department of Youth Corrections never again resorts to using long-term solitary confinement to manage or punish children.
A 2014 investigation by the ACLU of Colorado, the Colorado Juvenile Defender Center, and Colorado Disability Law revealed that DYC had illegally placed children in solitary confinement for days, weeks, even more than a month as punishment when there was no emergency, as a form of “treatment.”
Following the investigation, DYC committed to ending its use of solitary confinement except in emergencies, and adopted a new policy to that effect. HB 1328 codifies the current policy limiting the use of solitary confinement and establishes procedures to be followed when a child is secluded for more than four hours.  The bill also includes recording requirements and the establishment of a working group to ensure implementation of the law and to prevent reversion to harmful seclusion practices.
The ACLU of Colorado would like to thank the sponsors of HB 1328, Senators Kent Lambert and Kevin Lundberg, Representative Beth McCann, and especially Representative Pete Lee, whose personal dedication and leadership was essential to navigating the bill to successful passage with wide bipartisan support in the final days of the session.”
RESOURCES:

Fact Sheet on HB 1328 – A Bill to Protect Colorado’s Children from Solitary Confinement

Visit the ACLU of Colorado Stop Solitary Campaign Page

DENVER – The City of Colorado Springs has agreed, as part of a $103,000 settlement with the ACLU of Colorado, to stop converting impoverished defendants’ fines into jail time, to stop sentencing defendants to jail for non-jailable offenses, and to compensate dozens of individuals whose court fines were illegally converted to jail time when they could not afford to pay.

“Until last fall, the Colorado Springs Municipal Court was regularly sentencing poor and homeless defendants to jail because they were too poor to pay fines imposed for minor ordinance violations,” said Mark Silverstein, ACLU of Colorado Legal Director.  “We asked the City to stop this unconstitutional practice, to repeal the ordinance that arguably authorized it, and to set up a fund to compensate defendants who had been sentenced to jail for non-jailable offenses.  The City Attorney’s Office, to its credit, promptly agreed and worked collaboratively with the ACLU of Colorado to reach the finalized settlement agreement that we are proudly announcing today.”

A 2015 ACLU of Colorado investigation revealed hundreds of cases where the Colorado Springs Municipal Court imposed a fine for violation of a city ordinance and then, when the defendant could not pay, converted the fine into a jail sentence, which court documents labeled as a “pay or serve” sentence.  A “pay or serve” sentence ordered a defendant to either pay the amount due or serve time in jail at a rate of $50 a day.  In three-fourths of the “pay or serve” sentences, defendants were jailed for non-jailable offenses, meaning that they were punishable by a fine only.  In some cases, the Court imposed multiple consecutive jail sentences on defendants who had more than one citation for a non-jailable offense.

Shawn Hardman, an ACLU client, was sentenced on four occasions to a total of more than 90 days in jail for non-jailable panhandling tickets.  Like many other victims of the City’s debtor’s prison practices, Hardman was convicted for merely displaying a sign inviting charity -- conduct that the City acknowledges did not violate the panhandling ordinance.

“In the year preceding the ACLU’s investigation, this homeless man, who had not broken the law for which he was repeatedly cited, was sentenced to serve nearly three months in jail for a non-jailable offense, solely because he was poor,” said ACLU of Colorado Staff Attorney Rebecca T. Wallace.

“I was trapped in a cell that it seemed like I could never get out of. I was told over and over that I either had to pay or go back to jail.  I was homeless and jobless, so the cycle kept repeating,” said Hardman. “I am thankful for this settlement, because it will help me keep a roof over my head, something I have wanted for a long time.  Even more, I am proud that the settlement will protect other people living on the streets in Colorado Springs from going through what I went through – being jailed just because I was poor.”

Hardman and three other ACLU clients will receive payment within 14 days.  An additional 62 persons are eligible for compensation based on a rate of $125 per day for each day of incarceration solely for a non-jailable offense.  The City and the ACLU will work together to notify those individuals of their eligibility, and they will be able to claim compensation until December 30, 2016 or up to two years from the date of their incarceration, whichever is later.

Colorado Springs will also provide training on constitutional protections for indigent defendants, which will include presentations by ACLU attorneys, to all its municipal prosecutors and judges, as well as defense attorneys contracted to represent indigent defendants.  The City has already complied with its promise to repeal the ordinance that authorized judges to convert fines to jail time.

“We hope today’s settlement sends a loud and clear message to municipal courts throughout the state to stop using jail or the threat of jail to collect debts from persons who are too poor to pay,” Silverstein said.

In recent years, the ACLU of Colorado has called for greater scrutiny of municipal court practices, especially as they affect indigent defendants.   Two bills concerning the rights of impoverished defendants in municipal courts were passed by bipartisan majorities in the Colorado legislature this year and are now awaiting Governor Hickenlooper’s signature.  HB 15-1309 would ensure a public defender at first appearance for indigent defendants held in jail. HB 15- 1311 further updates a law passed in 2014 to stop courts from jailing poor defendants for failing to pay court-ordered fines. The ACLU of Colorado is calling on the Governor to sign both bills without delay.

more on this case

DENVER – The Colorado legislature passed two pieces of legislation in recent days to protect the rights of poor and vulnerable defendants in Colorado’s municipal courts.  Both bills await Governor Hickenlooper’s signature.

Nearly three-fourths of Colorado’s lawmakers supported HB16 – 1309 (fact sheet), a bill to safeguard the right to counsel in municipal court.  In state and county courts, an attorney is available at first appearance to advocate for the release of jailed defendants and to advise those defendants on pleas when jail is a possible sentence.  In almost all Colorado municipal courts, however, defendants must face the judge alone, must make arguments for release alone, and must decide how to plead alone.  HB16 – 1309 requires counsel be provided at first appearance to defendants who cannot afford to bond out of jail on a minor municipal offense and who face a possible jail sentence.

Earlier today, the Colorado Senate voted 23 to 12 in support of HB16 -1311 (fact sheet), a bill to finally end the practice of jailing people who cannot afford to pay fines and fees in Colorado. In 2014, the legislature passed HB-1061 with near-unanimous bipartisan support, acting to end debtors’ prisons in Colorado.  District and county courts followed that law, but municipal courts found a loophole to keep jailing people who are too poor to pay. HB16 - 1311 closes the loophole and finally ends debtors' prison practices in Colorado municipal courts.
 

ACLU of Colorado Public Policy Director Denise Maes issued the following statement:
“The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado commends the Colorado legislature for coming together to protect the rights and liberties of Colorado’s most vulnerable defendants in municipal court.

"Being poor is not a crime. The ACLU of Colorado has found overwhelming evidence that poor people are often punished, and even jailed, by Colorado’s municipal courts just for being poor.

“Impoverished municipal defendants routinely plead guilty without the advice of counsel just to get out of jail, even when they are innocent.  These same defendants often experience collateral consequences of their plea – including obstacles to employment, housing, and government benefits – that are never explained at court, due to the lack of counsel.

“Municipal courts continue to use jail and the threat of jail to collect debts from the poor, creating a two-tiered system of justice in which people who cannot afford to pay are imprisoned, while those with means simply pay their debt and move on with their lives.

“The steps taken by the legislature this session, if approved by the Governor, will reduce the number of innocent, unrepresented defendants who are wrongly jailed for crimes they did not commit and will finally put municipal courts in line with the well-established Constitutional principle that jail should never be used to collect payment from those who cannot pay.

“We strongly urge Governor Hickenlooper to sign both bills without delay, and we look forward to working with Colorado’s emerging coalition of reform-minded legislators on future improvements to make our courts and criminal justice system more fair, efficient, and consistent with Constitutional principles.”

RESOURCES:
ACLU fact sheet on HB16 – 1309, a bill to safeguard the right to counsel in Colorado municipal courts
ACLU fact sheet on HB16 – 1311, a bill to end debtors’ prisons in Colorado