What everybody ought to know about…
How to Fix Colorado’s Crime Problem
The Bipartisan Approach to Crime Prevention
Some plain talk about simple solutions to a seemingly complex problem.
The problem is all over the news every-single-day. Stolen cars, smash and grab robberies, and violent shootings have become daily events. Why? There are a lot of motives for crime, but one thing we can control, as a society, is how we prevent it.
Crime rates have skyrocketed in Colorado. Auto thefts are so high the General Assembly and the Governor are working on new legislation with more severe penalties. Will this actually help? Criminals have become bold, even stealing cars with babies and children inside.
There are many theories on how we got here, from defund the police movements to “tough on crime” excessive prison sentences. Rather than continue to debate the causes, we need to provide solutions – solutions based on facts and science, not politics.
The Scientific Truths
The resources we have in Colorado to fix this problem are finite. Allocating too many resources to this problem reduces the funding for education, public safety, public health, infrastructure, etc.
Incarceration costs have skyrocketed. Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) is short over 1,700 staff statewide. Sterling Correctional Facility (SCF), the largest in the state, is using teachers and case managers as security staff because they are short over 270 staff members. The offender rehabilitation programs are all closed and have been for months. This severely inhibits CDOC’s mission of rehabilitating offenders to be ready for re-entry into society.
The good news is…The single most powerful deterrent for crime is the certainty of being caught. This is much more powerful than the fear of punishment. Crime prevention measures are both more cost effective and deterrent effective than incarceration.
The Politics
Generally speaking, Republicans want “tough on crime” policies including excessively long prison sentences. If a criminal is behind bars, they can’t commit any new crimes. Democrats seem to want less police interactions, less police officers, and more crime prevention efforts in the community. The truth is, each party is right…and wrong.
The Realities
To deter crime, we need a larger police presence to ensure the powerful “certainty of being caught” deterrent is effective. These additional officers may need alternative training, but that is a conversation for another time.
To prevent crime, we need more prevention measures in our communities. The only way to get these programs implemented at the level needed is through prison reform. Prison reform actions will provide the needed resources for crime prevention.
95% of the current prison population will be released and be our neighbors. With this in mind, it makes sense to be sure all released offenders are properly rehabilitated and ready to re-enter society.
The challenge is many prisoners who are low-risk and ready to reintegrate still have years left on their sentences. This consumes vast resources which could be used for crime prevention and rehabilitation of higher need inmates. Decades of excessive sentencing practices have created this debilitating problem.
How CDOC Works
CDOC assesses inmates based on their risk to recidivate and their level of threat to public safety. This is one thing the Department does well. There are 5 categories of risk; very low, low, medium, high, and very high. Most inmates classified as very low, low, or medium risk are successful reintegrating with negligible recidivism rates.
CDOC fails in properly using this information to place inmates in appropriate custody levels, Community Corrections programs, and parole options. Inmates are thoroughly vetted by multiple entities prior to being accepted to Community Corrections or Parole. This vetting helps ensure public safety.
Colorado’s incarceration costs average $55,717 per inmate, per year. The costs of Community Corrections or Parole programs are significantly less, averaging $12,032 or $6,270, respectively. This CDOC failure literally removes resources over $43 million per year from crime prevention and prisoner rehabilitation. This failure actually decreases public safety.
The Simple Solutions
Public safety must be paramount in any implemented solution. The following solutions ensure public safety is the top priority and not negatively impacted:
- The General Assembly needs to pass legislation to allow qualified, lower risk offenders to advance to the next level of Community Corrections or Parole much sooner.
Simple adjustments; increasing monthly Earned Time for good behavior, eliminating the Achievement Earned Time limit for rehabilitation milestones, and increasing the eligibility date for the Community Corrections and Intensive Supervised Parole-Inmate programs would achieve huge results.
- This creates an estimated $43 million annually which can be reallocated to fund crime prevention and prisoner rehabilitation.
This will enhance public safety by implementing prevention programs which will reduce crime.
- The General Assembly needs to pass legislation revising the sentencing statutes to reduce excessively long sentencing practices. These statutes have not been revisited since 1985, it is certainly time to do so.
Shorter sentences mean more available resources, less crime, and therefore safer communities.
- Colorado needs to implement a Second Look Act, like other states, to allow offenders’ files to be reviewed to see if they have been sufficiently rehabilitated to be successfully reintegrated into society.
Second Look Acts keep the safety measures of parole boards and Community Corrections boards in place while providing the opportunity for lower risk offenders to reintegrate.
Simple, easily implemented, solutions and plain talk, not politics will provide the solutions we need to keep us safe.