2023 Legislative Priorities.
HB23-1151: Clarifications to 48-hour Bond Hearing Requirement
★✔★ PRIORITY SUPPORT —
PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Woodrow, Bockenfeld; Sens. Rodriguez, Gardner.
HB23-1151 clarifies the legislative intent of HB21-1280 (a past bill championed by CFF), fixes uneven statewide implementation of 48-hour bond hearings, and ensures consistency and fairness in access to 48-hour bond hearings across the state.
HB23-1182: Remote Public Access to Criminal Court Proceedings
★✔★ PRIORITY SUPPORT —
PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Epps, Mabrey; Sens. Fields, Gardner.
HB23-1182 requires all Colorado courts to allow remote public observation of criminal proceedings conducted in open court, unless the court does not have the technology, or the public is excluded from the proceeding, or there are victim safety or fair trial concerns that cannot be reasonably mitigated.
HB23-1202: Overdose Prevention Center Authorization
✔ ACTIVE SUPPORT — POSTPONED INDEFINITELY ⏳
Sponsors: Reps. Epps, Willford; Sens. Priola, Gonzales.
HB23-1202 defines Overdose Prevention Centers (OPCs) in the law and permits municipalities to authorize the operation of an OPC in their community. OPCs are safe, supervised spaces for people to use previously obtained drugs, test for fentanyl, get counseling, connect to treatment, receive harm reduction services, and stay alive.
SB23-109: Criminal Penalty Controlled Substance Supplier
✘ OPPOSE — POSTPONED INDEFINITELY 🎉
Sponsors: Sens. B. Pelton, Mullica; Reps. Lynch, Snyder.
SB23-109 expands the so-called “drug induced homicide” offenses originally created by HB22-1326. Last year’s bill created a new drug felony with an 8-32 year mandatory prison sentence when someone transfers (shares or sells) drugs containing fentanyl to a person who then dies from an overdose. SB23-109 extends the crime to overdose deaths by any controlled substance, not just fentanyl.
SB23-158: Sunset Colorado Commission On Criminal And Juvenile Justice
✘ OPPOSE — POSTPONED INDEFINITELY 🎉
Sponsors: Sen. Gardner; Reps. Gonzales-Gutierrez, Weissman.
Description: SB23-158 continues the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ) for the next five years. Despite CCJJ occupying the pre-trial space for the last decade, only one of their pre-trial recommendations has been implemented since 2013. Other mechanisms, including community-based stakeholding, can be called upon when needed, rather than relying on CCJJ as a gatekeeper to pretrial reform and other criminal legal initiatives.
SB23-254: Search Warrant Procedures
✐ AMEND* — PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW
Sponsors: Sens. Fields, Gonzales; Reps. Epps, Weissman.
Description: SB23-254 creates new requirements for law enforcement officers executing search warrants (both knock-and-announce and no-knock warrants). Destruction of evidence will no longer legally justify a no-knock entry by officers, with or without a warrant
*CFF supports the policy goals of SB23-254– reducing the number of dangerous no-knock entries by law enforcement. We took an amend position because the bill lacks an enforcement mechanism.
HB23-1034: Measures to Expand Postconviction DNA Testing
✔ SUPPORT — PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Daugherty, Soper; Sens. Gonzales, Simpson.
Current law allows only incarcerated people to file a motion for postconviction DNA testing. HB23-1034 extends the right to postconviction DNA testing, if testing was unavailable at the time of prosecution, to people convicted of felony offenses who are on parole or probation, people required to register as a sex offender, people who have completed their sentence, and people determined to be not guilty by reason of insanity.
HB23-1042: Admissibility Standards for Juvenile Statements
✔ SUPPORT — PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Bacon, Sharbini; Sen. Gonzales.
HB23-1042 makes any statement or admission by a juvenile during a custodial interrogation presumptively inadmissible if the law enforcement official knowingly uses deception before or during the interrogation.
HB23-1164: Opioid Harm Reduction (aka the “not a harm reduction” bill)
✘ OPPOSE — POSTPONED INDEFINITELY 🎉
Sponsor: Rep. Lynch.
HB23-1164 makes it a felony to possess 1-4 grams of a drug containing fentanyl even when the person in possession did not know the drug contained fentanyl. HB23-1164 repeals an exception that allows someone to be convicted of a misdemeanor (rather than a felony) for possession of 1-4 grams of a drug containing fentanyl, when the person didn’t know the drug contained fentanyl. The bill also creates a Narcan bulk purchasing process in the Department of Education, even though one already exists in the Department of Public Health & Environment.
HB23-1167: Reporting of Emergency Overdose Events
✔ SUPPORT — PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Kennedy, Sharbini; Sen. Rodriguez.
HB23-1167 grants immunity to people from charges of possession of fentanyl and drug sharing if they report a related overdose to an emergency responder. The bill also creates an affirmative defense to drug distribution if the person is in possession of less than 4 grams, reports the overdose to an emergency responder, and satisfies additional requirements.
HB23-1169: Limit Arrest for Low-level Offenses
✐ AMEND* — POSTPONED INDEFINITELY ⏳
Sponsor: Rep. Bacon.
HB23-1169 prohibits a police officer from arresting a person for a petty offense, a drug petty offense, a class 2 traffic misdemeanor, and low-level municipal offenses. The bill makes exceptions for certain offenses and allows an officer to arrest someone if the person’s location is unknown.
*CFF strongly supports the goals of HB23-1169– reducing arrests for low-level offenses– but we seek to remove certain offense-specific carve outs.
HB23-1214: Procedure to Apply for Commutation of Sentence
✔ SUPPORT — PASSED BUT VETOED BY GOVERNOR
Sponsor: Rep. Epps., Sens. Coleman, Gonzales
HB23-1214 establishes clear roles, responsibilities, and timelines used to process an application for commutation of sentence. The bill permits the governor to grant pardons to people convicted of possession of up to 2 ounces of marijuana without complying with the commutation process.
HB23-1249: Reduce Justice-involvement for Young Children
✔ SUPPORT — PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW
Sponsors: Reps. Gonzales-Gutierrez, Armagost; Sens. Simpson, Coleman.
HB23-1249 increases funding for multi-disciplinary social services teams that serve children accused of crimes. The bill also expands data collection and reporting to assess those social services. A previous version of the bill would have changed the minimum age of a child who may be prosecuted in juvenile court from 10 to 13 years old.
