Morse pulls sentencing reform in face of criticism

DENVER - A proposed overhaul of sentencing laws died without a vote Tuesday after Gov. Bill Ritter said he couldn't support reducing prison terms without hearing from a state criminal justice commission.

Senate Bill 286 was to have been heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee today, but its primary sponsor, Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, withdrew it in the face of harsh criticism.

Instead of mandating a laundry list of changes, including altering sentences and reducing many felonies to misdemeanors, Morse said he'll introduce a measure calling for an expedited study by the state Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.

A companion bill, Senate Bill 288, aimed at capping the number of prisoners in state lockups, will be tabled indefinitely, Morse said.

The about-face came after Attorney General John Suthers and district attorneys from around the state assembled outside the state Capitol on Tuesday to oppose the proposal. El Paso County officials also sharply criticized the proposals, saying county taxpayers would be paying more to house inmates at the county jail.

Morse said he met with Ritter Monday and the governor "was very clear that he prefers that this goes through the CCJJ process."

Morse, who will become Senate majority leader at the end of this legislative session, said he would urge the CCJJ, of which he is a member, to move quickly on sentencing reform.

"With the budget realities and everything else, I think things have changed pretty drastically since January," he said. "We've got to be focused on this now, not a year or two from now."

Morse said the bill would require the commission to deliver its recommendations by Dec. 1.

Much of the impetus for sentencing reform was lawmakers' scramble to come up with money to keep state government running in the middle of a deep recession.

"We're locking away far too many people who aren't a danger to society," said Rep. Michael Merrifield,  D-Colorado Springs. "We can't continue to sentence and put away in prison the number of people we do, and pay for it."

Merrifield, chairman of the House education committee, said sentencing reform could free up more money for education. "We spend 10 times as much money incarcerating somebody as we do educating one K-through-12 student," he said. "The equation doesn't work for me."

But El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa warned of the bill's affects on local government.

"This bill is driven by cost shifting," he told county commissioners Tuesday. "It has no regard for public safety."

Equally outraged, 4th Judicial District Attorney Dan May, called the sentencing bill a "radical change."

May said it would change many felonies to misdemeanors, including some identity theft crimes, make possession of drugs a misdemeanor and bar jail time for first offenders, bar judges from sentencing someone to jail for violating probation unless the defendant committed a new crime, and ban application of the habitual criminal statute on those convicted of multiple property crimes, among other things.

May said omitting the habitual sentence for repeat offenders was particularly troublesome. "Twenty percent of criminals do 80 percent of the crimes," he said.

May, Maketa and county commissioners said they weren't consulted about the bill before it was proposed last week.

"Let's be clear," Morse said in a statement. "Sentencing reform is not synonymous with sentence reductions."

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