Today our debtors’ prison bill, which is aimed at ending the common practice in Colorado of jailing poor people for failure to pay fines, passed the state legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support.  This victory is the result of two years of hard work and collaboration. In addition to bill sponsors Representative Joe Salazar and Senator Lucia Guzman, we commend  and thank Jared Thornburg and Linda Roberts, the two Coloradans who chose to share their experiences with legislators and helped us put a human face on the issue. Their stories are below. 
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Jared Thornburg:
Jared Thornburg was recently unemployed, recovering from a serious workplace injury, and homeless when the City of Westminster threw him in jail for ten days because he could not pay a fine for driving a defective vehicle.

In March 2012, Jared pleaded to driving a defective vehicle and was ordered by the court to pay $165 in fines and costs.  Jared told the court that he was homeless and penniless and could not pay the fine.  He asked for a brief amount of time to try to get the money together to pay, but the court told him that he would have to pay by the end of the next day, or a warrant would be issued for his arrest.  Jared was unable to come up with the money and, shortly after, the court issued a pay-or-serve warrant for his arrest.

The warrant ordered that Jared either immediately pay $245, an amount which now included new fees stemming from his inability to pay, or serve 10 days in jail.  Despite knowing that Jared was homeless and unemployed, the Westminster Municipal Court sentenced him to 10 days in jail, without any hearing on the matter.  Jared was arrested in May 2012 and he served the full 10 days in jail without ever being taken before a judge.

Jared is now employed at a King Soopers grocery store, where he has been promoted three times in eight months.  Had Westminster taken into account his inability to pay and granted him an extension, he would by now have paid off his fine.  Instead, Jared spent 10 days in jail at a cost of over $700 to the taxpayer.
 
Linda Roberts:
Linda Roberts is a 55 year old disabled, homeless grandmother.  Linda’s only source of income are food stamps and a small disability check, and she often does not have enough money to pay for food.

In June 2012, Linda shoplifted $20 worth of groceries.  Linda pleaded guilty to the charge and a Wheat Ridge Municipal Court Judge ordered her to pay $371 in fines and fees and to take a class at a cost of $80.  Ms. Roberts explained to the court that she was unemployed, disabled and impoverished and did not have the means to pay.

When Linda did not pay, the fees and fines ballooned to $746 and a pay-or-serve warrant was issued for her arrest.  The warrant ordered that Ms. Roberts either pay the full amount or serve 15 days in jail.

Linda was arrested in October 2012, and she served 15 days in Adams County Jail, at a cost of $1,700 to the taxpayers.  While in jail, Linda appeared before the Westminster Municipal Court, only to be told that her only choices would be to put up the full amount of the fine or serve the 15 days.  Linda did not have the money, so she was forced to “pay off” her fine through imprisonment.
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More information on our campaign to end debtors' prisons in Colorado can be found here.

DENVER -The Colorado Senate today overwhelmingly passed a ban on the practice of jailing people for being too poor to pay fines.   The legislation, which was unanimously approved by the House earlier this month, follows an in-depth investigation by the ACLU of Colorado that found that many Colorado cities and some county courts order the arrest and imprisonment of poor persons who miss payments of fines and court fees without a process to determine whether a person has the ability to pay, as the U.S. Supreme Court has required.

Statement of ACLU of Colorado Public Policy Director Denise Maes

“The ACLU of Colorado commends the state legislature, especially Representative Joe Salazar and Senator Lucia Guzman, for putting an end to the unconstitutional, inefficient, and inhumane practice of jailing people who are too poor to pay fines.
“Colorado’s lawmakers have overwhelmingly agreed that our judicial system, which prides itself on equal justice for all, cannot maintain a structure in which people with means pay their fines and move on with their lives, while the poor go to jail.
“There is also vast bipartisan agreement among legislators that jailing the poor for unpaid fines is fiscally unwise.  Throwing a person in jail because they owe a debt to the court not only means that the court will never collect that debt, it also costs the taxpayer significant money to arrest and imprison a person who does not deserve to be there.
“We look forward to the Governor’s approval of this legislation and its immediate implementation by all courts around the state.”
Learn more about the ACLU of Colorado’s campaign to end debtors’ prisons: https://aclu-co.org/campaigns/end-debtors-prisons/

The physical details of a person's daily experience in isolated confinement is worth examining.  The cells are a bit bigger than a king sized bed and the offender spends 22 plus hours a day there.  In this environment, you sleep, eat and defecate - one lives their entire daily life in that cell.
In Colorado, the average length of time one remains in solitary confinement is approximately 14 months.  All experts agree that long-term isolation should not extend beyond 30 days. 30 days versus 14 months.  Studies tell us that isolated inmates are 7 times more likely to hurt or kill themselves than inmates in general population.
No one would disagree that solitary confinement is at times necessary to protect guards and prisoners from potentially dangerous prisoners.  However, as Director Raemisch himself tells us, solitary confinement has been overused, misused and abused for years.  Thankfully, more attention has recently been brought to this serious practice, and there has been greater movement toward questioning its wisdom.  The ACLU has proudly stood at the forefront of this movement, along with many other notable groups and individuals.  This issue is important.
Colorado has significantly reduced the number of prisoners in solitary confinement.  In just the past three years, we have seen a 60% reduction of prisoners in solitary confinement.   That is laudable - though we are keenly aware that Colorado remains above the national average in the percentage of prisoners in solitary confinement compared to the total number of prisoners.  The national average is 2% and Colorado sits at 3.5%, although that number fluctuates quite a bit.
Today's bill addresses one aspect of solitary confinement—the placement of offenders with a serious mental illness in such conditions.  The bill before you, thankfully, prohibits the placement of offenders with SMI in long-term isolated confinement.  This form of confinement will only render one more seriously mentally ill. I have often said that if you weren't mentally ill when go into solitary, you sure will be coming out.
In Colorado, offenders with a serious mental illness have been placed in solitary confinement for years with no road out.  We know that through the great work and leadership of Director Raemisch and Deputy Director Wasko, many prisoners with SMI have been transferred out of what CDOC terms "administrative segregation" and into a treatment program, and some actually into general population.  What we have discovered, however, is that some prisoners in CDOC's treatment program are living in conditions similar to—no, actually identical to, solitary confinement.  That practice must end.
For persons with a SMI, courts are unanimous in their conclusion.   Because isolation is so potentially damaging to the seriously mentally ill, every court to address the issue has ruled that isolated confinement violates the 8th Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
Although the ACLU is here in support of this bill, I'll be frank.  The bill falls short in an important way: the bill lacks the definition of key terms—SMI, long term isolated confinement and the term "exigent circumstances."  CDOC resisted defining those terms in legislation, feeling that such codification would interfere too much in CDOC operations and deny them the flexibility they feel they need.  Rather than codifying these terms, as of April 1, 2014, CDOC implemented new policies that establish a treatment program.  The policies CDOC has recently implemented are crucial to this bill's success.
Prohibiting the placement of offenders with a serious mental illness in solitary confinement is one step.  True reform can only come from focused care and and proper mental health treatment and that can only be provided with adequate mental health care professionals on a very regular basis.  That means group therapy and one-on-one time with a therapist.  That costs dollars and is no easy undertaking.  But it's critical. Humane treatment aimed at true rehabilitation is critical for all of us, because 97% of today's prison population will be back in our communities and live as our neighbors.
We commend Director Raemisch for his work on solitary confinement and for his willingness to speak about its abuses in the public domain.  He has taken his message to these halls and to the hall of the U.S. Congress.  Since early 2011, when Tom Clements was Director, we have seen a sea of change at CDOC.  And Director Raemisch's challenge within CDOC cannot be underestimated.  Colorado's historic reliance on solitary confinement has created a culture of punishment and this is counterproductive to the successful re-entry of today's offenders.
SB 64 is but one small step.  I hope you'll take it and vote in its favor.