EDITORIAL: Demand accountability from Colorado's convicts | Editorial

Law-abiding Coloradoans, fed up with the tremendous crime wave of recent years, would rightly be angry if they knew that many of the criminals who end up in prison in our state do not stay there long.

Serious offenders can usually be paroled after serving half of their sentence, after deducting “earned time”—credits for participating in prison jobs, job training, literacy classes, and various other activities that prison guards want to encourage—as well as time the inmate spent in prison while awaiting trial as a defendant.

As a result, serious criminals often leave prison far too early and many of them naturally commit further crimes.

A crackdown on the state's lax parole laws is long overdue. But it's unlikely to come from the ruling Democrats in the Capitol, many of whom are enamored with the “justice reform” dogma that's in vogue in the “progressive” wing of the party. They've become soft on crime and won't come back to reality on their own anytime soon.

In fact, one of the biggest criminal coddlers in Parliament, Representative and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Mike Weissman (D-Aurora), killed a bill this year that would have called for just such a rigorous approach.

Among other things, HB24-1127 would have required offenders convicted of murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and a number of other serious crimes to serve 85 percent of their sentence before being eligible for parole. Weissman and his party colleagues on the committee rejected the proposal.

So last week we were all the more excited by the news that a citizen initiative to improve our state's flawed parole system was approved for the November ballot. The proposal from Advance Colorado would require the state's most violent criminals to serve 85% of their sentence before they can be paroled. A third offense would require inmates to serve 100% of their sentence.

In other words, Advance Colorado's Truth in Sentencing initiative aims to urge voters in November to do what the Legislature has not had the courage to do: demand that convicted criminals be held accountable.

The fact that nearly 200,000 Colorado voters felt compelled to sign petitions in favor of the ballot proposal speaks volumes about how out of touch the state's ruling political class is with reality when it comes to law and order.

Advance's proposal is not just a soothing attempt to exact revenge on criminals. Nor is it just about making them pay for their misdeeds, although that is certainly a noble principle in itself.

Rather, Initiative 112 is a practical and sensible attempt to curb the very real and often tragic consequences of unhindered probation.

One need only look at the case of Kenneth Dean Lee, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison last year for sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl in Aurora in 2021.

It turned out that Lee had been released on parole the year before after being convicted in 2014 of almost identical incidents, only the victims were different. He was due to serve a 23-year to life sentence, but was released after just six years – to once again torment Colorado's children.

Will he stay this time and finally serve his sentence? That's obviously not a sure thing.

Colorado voters must pick up the ball where lawmakers dropped it – and pass the Truth in Sentencing Act this November.