Corrections - Digest of Bills

Digest of Bills - 2000

CORRECTIONS
S.B. 00-140 Youthful offender system - treatment for sex offenders - resentencing - evaluation of programs - contract for educational services - appropriation. Specifies the general assembly's intent that offenders sentenced to the youthful offender system ("YOS") be housed in a specially designed facility, separate from adult inmates, but that youthful offenders be treated as adults under state statutes and department of corrections' ("DOC") regulations.

Requires the court to order a presentence investigation prior to sentencing a juvenile to the YOS. Eliminates cigarettes and access to snacks from the list of privileges that may be withheld from offenders in the YOS. Deletes the specific language requiring the YOS to use positive peer programming in rehabilitating youthful offenders. Requires the YOS to provide sex offender treatment services to any offender who has a history of committing a sex offense.

Eliminates the DOC's authority to transfer a youthful offender to another facility for vocational training. Allows the DOC to transfer a youthful offender to another DOC facility if he or she poses a danger, regardless of the crime for which the offender was convicted or the offender's age. Limits to 60 days the period for which a youthful offender may be transferred to another DOC facility. At the end of said period, requires the youthful offender to be returned to the YOS facility or resentenced. Prohibits holding a youthful offender in isolation, in segregation, or in an adult facility for longer than 60 consecutive days without action by the sentencing court.

Allows the DOC to transfer a youthful offender to another facility for diagnosis if a mental health clinician thinks the offender may have a mental illness or a developmental disability. As a part of the diagnosis, requires the diagnosing professionals to determine whether the youthful offender is capable of completing the YOS program. If it is determined that the youthful offender is incapable of completing the YOS program, instructs the sentencing court to revoke the sentence and either impose the original DOC sentence or reduce the DOC sentence. Prohibits the court from increasing the youthful offender's sentence or from sentencing the youthful offender as a juvenile.

Allows the DOC to house a youthful offender who is unsuccessful in completing the YOS program, for reasons other than mental illness or a developmental disability, in any appropriate DOC facility while awaiting resentencing, but requires the offender to be transferred to a county jail within 30 days after the executive director's approval of the decision to seek revocation. Requires the sentencing court to review the revocation of the youthful offender's sentence and to resentence him or her within 120 days after the district attorney of record receives notice to seek revocation.

Instructs the division of criminal justice within the department of public safety to evaluate, or contract with a public or private entity for the evaluation of, the YOS and to submit a biennial report to the judiciary committees of the senate and the house of representatives. Deletes provisions that allowed the department of corrections to contract with providers for facilities and comparable programs for female youthful offenders prior to completion of the permanent facility in Pueblo.

Authorizes the DOC to contract with any public or private entity, including a school district, for provision or certification of educational services. Specifies that offenders receiving educational services pursuant to the contract shall not be included in calculating the contracting school district's student performance on assessments or the school district's grades.

Appropriates $103,391 and 2 FTE to the department of corrections for implementation of the act.

APPROVED by Governor May 26, 2000
EFFECTIVE May 26, 2000

S.B. 00-218 Jails - work requirements. Repeals any language requiring prisoners confined in a municipal jail to work. Repeals the requirement that prisoners confined in county jails work at hard labor, and instead requires only that they work 8 hours of every working day. Clarifies that the work requirements apply to prisoners confined in the jail of a city and county. Repeals language requiring the sheriff to compel such prisoners to work on making or repairing public roads. Specifies that employment as a jail trusty is sufficient to meet the work requirement.

Repeals provisions that:

Impose a fine on a sheriff, marshal, or police chief for failing to require prisoners to work;
Require a sheriff, marshal, or police chief to keep account of prisoners' earnings received in complying with the work requirement;
Require a sheriff, marshal, or police chief to pay the earnings to each prisoner's spouse or children.

APPROVED by Governor May 26, 2000
EFFECTIVE August 2, 2000
NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause. For further explanation concerning the effective date, see the note from page vi of this digest.

H.B. 00-1133 Restructuring of department - facility security levels - inmate custody levels. Restructures the department of corrections (DOC) by:

Clarifying the powers and duties of the executive director of the DOC to:

Create other divisions and programs within the DOC as necessary;
Move any inmate between correctional facilities;
Monitor and supervise the activities of private contract prisons;
Make permissive, rather than mandatory, a process for issuing requests for proposals for the use and development of private contract prisons;
Adopt rules governing the release of records to inmates;
Transfer mentally ill or developmentally disabled inmates to a mental health institute at his or her discretion without the requirement of a physician's certification or report; and
Organize the division of adult parole and determine the number of and qualifications for assistant directors.

Establishing and specifying:

A security level for each correctional facility;
Allowable custody levels for inmates placed at private contract prisons; and
Monthly and annual reporting requirements for the DOC.

Changing:

The name of the division of adult services to the division of adult parole;
The division of correctional education to a program;
The requirement that prisoners wear a seat belt during transportation to a requirement that the number of prisoners in a vehicle cannot exceed the design capacity; and
The executive director's duty to include a literacy or education program in parole supervision until an inmate can be restored to productive independence, to a more general charge of providing work and self-improvement opportunities to assist inmates in successful community reintegration.

Repealing:

The legislative declaration regarding emergency response time;
The accounting system for expenditures on inmates;
In recognition that all inmates are to be housed in appropriate facilities, the specific requirement that women be housed in appropriate facilities;
The Colorado commission on parole guidelines;
The requirement for a form setting forth guidelines to be used by the state board of parole;
The duty of the division of adult parole to establish and administer appropriate programs of education and treatment and other productive activities designed to assist in inmate rehabilitation;
The duty of the division of adult parole to require offenders convicted of first degree sexual assault to participate in a program of mental health counseling or receive treatment to the extent the parole board deems appropriate;
The legislative directive regarding future correctional facility needs;
The duty to report differences in recidivism between department facilities and private facilities;
Legislative encouragement to consolidate parole and probation offices;
The duty of DOC investigators to notify local law enforcement when a DOC investigator intends to operate in the area;
The transfer of functions from the department of institutions to the DOC; and
The preference for agricultural use of lands associated with and owned by the DOC.

With respect to DOC facilities, adds tobacco to the list of items for the possession of which a person may be charged with the offense of introducing contraband in the second degree.

APPROVED by Governor May 24, 2000
EFFECTIVE May 24, 2000

H.B. 00-1150 Parole - special needs offenders - rules. Creates special needs parole for special needs offenders. Defines a "special needs offender" as a person in the custody of the department of corrections who is physically handicapped, mentally ill, terminally ill, or developmentally disabled, or is 65 years of age or older and incapable of taking care of himself or herself; except that "special needs offender" does not include a person who has been convicted of a class 1 felony, has been convicted of a crime of violence, or who is or has been a sex offender.

Allows the state board of parole ("board") to parole a special needs offender if:

The board makes a determination based on the offender's condition and a medical evaluation that the offender does not constitute a threat to public safety or is unlikely to commit an offense; and
The board prepares a special needs parole plan that ensures appropriate supervision and placement of the special needs offender.

Enables the board to promulgate rules regarding special needs parole.

Applies to any inmate applying for parole on or after July 1, 2001, regardless of when the inmate was sentenced. States that the special needs parole provisions shall not affect the length of the parole period to which a special needs offender would otherwise be subject.

APPROVED by Governor June 1, 2000
EFFECTIVE July 1, 2001
NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause. For further explanation concerning the effective date, see the note from page vi of this digest.

H.B. 00-1254 Private treatment providers - approval, certification, approval, or licensure - unauthorized residency by parolee or probationer. Includes nonresidential programs that treat criminal offenders from another state within the programs that are required to register with the administrator of the interstate compact on out-of-state parolee supervision. Clarifies that such treatment programs include programs treating out-of-state offenders who are not under the supervision of a parole or probation officer. Clarifies the definition of supervised and unsupervised persons.

Prohibits nonresident, out-of-state offenders from traveling into Colorado until they have been approved by the administrator of the interstate compact.

Requires programs for out-of-state, supervised offenders to be:

Approved by the division of alcohol and drug abuse within the department of human services if the treatment is for alcohol or drug abuse;
Certified or approved by the sex offender management board if the offender is a sex offender;
Certified or approved by a domestic violence treatment board if the offender was convicted of or the underlying factual basis included an act of domestic violence; or
Licensed or certified for any treatment or counseling required by the division of adult services in the department of corrections, the department of regulatory agencies, the division of mental health within the department of human services, the state board of nursing, or the state board of medical examiners.

Unless a court or the state parole board makes a specific finding otherwise, requires treatment or counseling ordered as a condition of probation, or parole to be obtained from a facility or a person approved, certified, or licensed in the same manner as programs for the treatment of out-of-state offenders.

Makes it a class 5 felony if a person who is required to have the permission of the administrator of the interstate compact to stay in the state:

Stays in Colorado as a nonresident prior to receiving approval by the administrator of the interstate compact; or
Stays in Colorado as a resident for more than 90 days without receiving the approval of the administrator.

APPROVED by Governor March 29, 2000
EFFECTIVE July 1, 2000

H.B. 00-1333 State board of parole - video teleconferencing policy. Instructs the chairperson of the parole board to adopt policies for the use of video teleconferencing technology in conducting parole hearings, parole revocation hearings, and board meetings.

APPROVED by Governor May 26, 2000
EFFECTIVE May 26, 2000

H.B. 00-1421 Community corrections program agents - duties - arrest powers. Identifies community corrections program agents ("agents"), within the department of corrections ("department"), as level Ia peace officers. Authorizes agents to maintain jurisdiction over offenders placed in any community corrections program by order of the executive director of the department of corrections ("executive director").

Permits the director of the community corrections program ("director") or any agent to arrest an offender, under specified circumstances, including when any offense under the laws of this state has been or is being committed by the offender in the presence of the director or agent or the director or agent has a warrant commanding that such offender be arrested.

Specifies that if an agent makes an arrest of an offender with or without a warrant, or the offender is otherwise arrested, the offender is to be held in a county jail or program pending action by the agent or the director.

Authorizes an agent to seek out and arrest any fugitive from a correctional facility when called upon and to assist other agencies in the apprehension of fugitives from jurisdictions throughout the state. Requires each agent, or the director acting as an agent, to notify the local law enforcement agency when the agent is operating or intends to operate within the local law enforcement agency's jurisdiction and to cooperate with the agency.

APPROVED by Governor March 29, 2000
EFFECTIVE March 29, 2000