News & Commentary

DENVER - 4/30 - Earlier today, Denver County Sheriff Gary Wilson announced that Denver will join the growing number of Colorado counties that have decided over the last two days to stop honoring immigration detainers from federal authorities that request that a person be held in jail for up to six days after they would otherwise be released.

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. ______________________________________________________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.

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