POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: Looper argues for vets court, floats Gitmo bill
A proposal that would give veterans who commit crime additional mental health and drug-abuse help rather than prison will get its first hearing at the General Assembly in Denver today.
Calhan Republican Rep. Marsha Looper's measure, HB1104, will be considered by the House Judiciary Committee at 1:30 p.m. The measure would extend a pilot program now underway in the 4th Judicial District statewide. A key component of the plan would give veterans who complete a treatment regimen a clean criminal record.
“This program is a common sense solution to the problems that haunt some of our returning soldiers,” Looper said. “It’s in our state’s best interest to give our military men and women a second chance.”
Looper on Monday was also touting a measure aimed at blocking the transfer of enemy combatants held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval base to Colorado for detention or trial.
That bill, HB1294, addresses the fear some harbor over the possibility that the captured insurgents could be held at the highest-security prison in the federal system – the SuperMax in Florence.
Looper is using the measure to take a shot at President Barack Obama, who has pledged to close the Guantanamo Bay facility and to prosecute some terror suspects in federal courts rather than before military tribunals.
“It is evident President Obama is pandering to the international community instead of protecting the citizens of the United States,” Looper wrote in a news release. “If the terrorists are transferred to Colorado we will subject to the unwanted scrutiny of other countries and possible attacks from terrorist organizations around the world.”
