2024 Legislation.
HB24-1437- Prohibit Flat Fees for Municipal Defense
★✔★ PRIORITY SUPPORT — PASSED THE HOUSE ⏳
Sponsors: Reps. Weissman, Duran; Sens. Fields, Michaelson Jenet.
HB24-1437 prohibits flat fee defense counsel contracts in municipalities that choose to prosecute domestic violence cases. Flat fee contracts pay attorneys the same amount, no matter how much time they spend on a case. HB24-1437 ensures survivors and those accused receive the critical benefits of robust indigent defense counsel, not the lowest bidding firm.
HB24-1241: Alignment of Petty Property Crime Threshold
★✔★ PRIORITY SUPPORT — PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Epps, Mabrey; Sen. Rodriguez.
HB24-1241 closes a technical loophole to ensure Coloradans accused of the lowest level property crimes are treated equally in municipal courts and state courts. The bill aligns state and municipal practice by prohibiting municipal courts from setting cash bonds for municipal charges that mirror state petty property crimes.
HB24-1126: Substance Use Disorder Treatment as Bond Condition
✘ PRIORITY OPPOSE — POSTPONED INDEFINITELY 🎉
Sponsors: Rep. Lynch; Sen. B. Pelton.
HB24-1126 would have allowed courts to order substance use disorder treatment as a condition of bond, even for the lowest level charges in the state. People’s pretrial freedom would have been dependent on their compliance with treatment and their willingness to reveal medical information to the court. CFF joins Right Response Colorado in opposing the bill.
SB24-090: Possess Identification While Driving
✘ PRIORITY OPPOSE
Sponsors: Reps. Will, Bridges; Sens. Bird, Evans.
SB24-090 would re-create an arrestable offense for refusing to present ID to law enforcement when pulled over for a traffic stop. This change would target people without government ID for arrest and reverse part of an omnibus reform bill that passed in 2021. CFF joins allies for immigrant and LGBTQ+ rights in opposing the bill.
HB24-1306: Increase Penalty Possession of Synthetic Opiates
✘ PRIORITY OPPOSE — POSTPONED INDEFINITELY 🎉
Sponsors: Rep. Lynch; Sen. B. Pelton.
HB24-1306 would have felonized many people with substance use disorder and people who use drugs. This extension of the war on drugs would have allowed prosecutors to charge people with a felony for possessing any quantity of fentanyl, even when they were unaware the drug they possessed was in fact fentanyl. CFF joins Right Response Colorado in opposing the bill.
HB24-1284: Pretrial Release for Repeat Violent Offenders
✘ PRIORITY OPPOSE — POSTPONED INDEFINITELY 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Evans, Bird; Sens. B. Pelton, Roberts.
HB24-1284 would require judges to set a $7,500 minimum cash bond for certain people based only on the charge they’re accused of. This bill would reinstate mandatory minimum cash bonds that were repealed in 2013, ensure pretrial jailing for people who are poor, and undermine the constitutional presumption of innocence– all without improving public safety.
HB24-1028: Overdose Prevention Centers
✔ ACTIVE SUPPORT — POSTPONED INDEFINITELY ⏳
Sponsors: Rep. Epps; Sen. Priola.
HB24-1028 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. CFF joins Right Response Colorado in supporting the bill.
HB24-1037: Substance Use Disorders Harm Reduction
✔ SUPPORT — PASSED THE HOUSE ⏳
Sponsors: Reps. Epps, deGruy Kennedy; Sen. Priola.
HB24-1037 makes several important changes to support harm reduction programs and protect people who use drugs. Among other things, HB24-1037 reduces warrant checking in emergency rooms, re-emphasizes immunity protections for possession of drug paraphernalia received from harm reduction programs, and authorizes those programs to test more types of drugs on-site. CFF joins Right Response Colorado in supporting the bill.
HB24-1066: Prevent Workplace Violence in Health-care Settings
✔ SUPPORT
Sponsors: Reps. Hamrick, García; Sens. Michaelson Jenet, Gonzales.
HB24-1066 requires hospitals to take preventative action against violence in their facilities. Hospitals must create plans and committees that include employees, and must report and review data on incidents of violence annually. This bill provides an alternative, non-carceral approach to a planned initiative that would have increased penalties for assault in healthcare settings, which are most often perpetrated by people in crisis. CFF joins Right Response Colorado in supporting the bill.
HB24-1079: Persons Detained in Jail on Emergency Commitment
✔ SUPPORT — PASSED THE HOUSE ⏳
Sponsors: Reps. Amabile, English; Sen. Fields.
HB24-1079 stops the outdated and cruel practice of jailing children for intoxication and mental health crises, even when they are not accused of a crime. As a good first step, it also discourages police from jailing adults for the same reasons, only allowing jailing when no treatment facilities are available.
HB24-1090: Privacy Protections Criminal Justice Records
✔ SUPPORT — PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Titone, Ricks; Sens. Exum, Fields.
HB24-1090 clarifies the mandate of a bill from 2023 that unintentionally blocked attorneys’ access to criminal court records statewide. This limited access to records created new challenges and slowdowns for defense attorneys trying to represent their clients. HB24-1090 restores attorneys’ access to court records generally, and ensures courts only redact the identifying information of child victims and witnesses.
HB24-1289: Workload Standards for Office of State Public Defender
✔ SUPPORT
Sponsors: Reps. Vigil, Joseph; Sens. Michaelson Jenet, Roberts.
HB24-1289 directs the Office of the State Public Defender to study and report on their attorneys’ workloads over time. The study will inform new procedures to facilitate more effective management of public defenders’ formidable caseloads.
HB24-1355: Measures to Reduce the Competency Wait List
✔ SUPPORT
Sponsors: Reps. Mabrey, Amabile.
HB24-1355 takes a step towards reducing Colorado’s competency waitlist by requiring courts to dismiss cases when someone has been charged with a Class 2 misdemeanor or below and has been found incompetent to proceed. HB-1355 also creates a new type of diversion program– people charged with a crime who also have competency concerns can voluntarily participate in wraparound, community-based services for 90 days to secure dismissal of their case.
SB24-065- Mobile Electronic Devices & Distracted Driving
✘ OPPOSE
Sponsors: Reps. Froelich, Ortiz; Sens. Fields, Hansen.
SB24-065 would expand police officers’ discretion to pull people over if they see anyone holding or supporting a cell phone while driving. Distracted driving is a serious public safety issue, but allowing officers to pull people over without requiring more evidence of dangerous driving will open the doors to racial profiling and biased policing.
SB24-047- Prevention of Substance Use Disorders
AMEND
Sponsors: Reps. Epps, Young; Sens. Jaquez Lewis, Priola.
HB24-047 would update terminology in Colorado’s drug laws and create local Overdose Fatality Review Boards to help better understand the overdose epidemic. With Right Response Colorado, CFF supports the primary purposes of the bill, but seeks an amendment to prohibit law enforcement from using information from Overdose Fatality Review Boards to further criminalize people who use banned drugs.
