2025 Legislative Priorities.
Check out our priority bills below and sign up for our mailing list to stay informed!
HB25-1147: Municipal Court Fairness and Transparency
★✔ PRIORITY SUPPORT — PASSED BUT VETOED BY GOVERNOR 👎🏽
Sponsors: Reps. Mabrey, Velasco; Sens. Amabile, Weissman.
HB25-1147 extends basic legal protections already available in state court to Colorado’s most vulnerable Coloradans - those prosecuted for poverty in our 200+ municipal courts. HB25-1147 requires parity between state and municipal court in sentencing, access to indigent defense counsel, and transparency of court proceedings. All Coloradans facing jail need to know the potential penalties they face, have access to defense counsel, and be tried in a public courtroom, no matter what court they are charged in.
HB25-1015: Clarifications to Online Bond Pay
★✔ PRIORITY SUPPORT — PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Mabrey, Zokaie; Sens. Gonzales, Rodriguez.
HB25-1015 removes unnecessary obstacles to online bond pay by applying existing bond posting requirements to online bond pay. Online bond payment is fair, efficient, and required in Colorado since 2022 (HB21-1280). Yet obstacles from private contractors make online bond pay inaccessible in most counties today. As long as pre-trial bond remains in place in Colorado, people should have every opportunity to secure their release, regardless of where they are jailed.
HB25-1276: Court Actions Related to Failure to Appear in Court
✘ PRIORITY OPPOSE — POSTPONED INDEFINITELY 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Soper, Bird; Sens. Roberts, Frizell.
HB25-1276 would undo a 2019 law to end cash bond and prohibit extended pretrial detention for people charged with minor offenses (HB19-1225). The new bill would allow judges to set cash bond and jail pretrial people accused of lowest level charges that are overwhelmingly used to prosecute unhoused Coloradans whose survival is already criminalized.
HB25-1072: Pretrial Release for Repeat Violent Offenders
✘ PRIORITY OPPOSE — POSTPONED INDEFINITELY 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Caldwell, Bird; Sen. B. Pelton.
HB25-1072 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 This bill would reinstate mandatory minimum cash bonds that were repealed in 2013, ensure pretrial jailing for people who are poor, and undermine the constitutional presumption of innocence– all without improving public safety.
SB25-044: Increase Synthetic Opiates Criminal Penalties
✘ OPPOSE — POSTPONED INDEFINITELY 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Armagost; Sen. B. Pelton.
HB25-044 would have further criminalized 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 sharing any quantity of fentanyl, even when someone was unaware the drug they possessed was in fact fentanyl. CFF joined Right Response Colorado in opposing the bill.
SB25-062: Failure to Appear Charges in Municipal Court
✔ SUPPORT — PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Carter, Gilchrist; Sens. Hinrichsen, Weissman.
SB25-062 ends the harmful practice of charging people in municipal court with a new criminal offense when they fail to appear for a hearing. Several cities use failure to appear charges to further criminalize homelessness and poverty, and there are many other evidence-based, non-punitive strategies to help people get to court.
HB25-1146: Increase Juvenile Detention Bed Cap
MONITOR AS AMENDED — PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW
Sponsors: Rep. Woog; Sen. Bird.
When originally introduced, HB25-1146 would have allowed Colorado to put more kids in cages in 2026 and every year after. After amendments passed in the House, this bill maintains, but does not increase the number of kids the state can cage, and instead funds a juvenile deflection program intended to route kids towards community-based support, avoiding adjudication and potential isolation.
HB25-1049: Communication Rights for Persons in Custody
✔ SUPPORT — PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Caldwell, Bird; Sen. B. Pelton.
HB25-1049 expands incarcerated Coloradans’ ability to receive calls and communicate privately with their attorney. People end up caged even longer when they can’t prepare for a hearing with their defense attorney or coordinate with a loved one to post bond. This modest change will help our neighbors communicate in ways that help them get free.
SB25-008: Strengthen the Necessary Documents Program
✔ SUPPORT — PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Caldwell, Bird; Sen. B. Pelton.
SB25-008 improves an existing program that pays for Coloradans to obtain free identification documents when they can’t afford them or have experienced certain life-altering events. People need a valid ID to access other important services and this bill removes the requirement for people to use physical vouchers to get their free ID, making that process more accessible.
SB25-041: Competency in Criminal Justice System Services & Bail
MONITOR AS AMENDED — PASSED & SIGNED INTO LAW
Sponsors: Reps. English, Bradfield; Sens. Amabile, Michaelson Jenet.
SB25-041 makes a series of clarifications related to the treatment of people in competency proceedings within the criminal legal system. It initially included uncontroversial, but critical, clarifying language related to pretrial detention–when a person has been found incompetent to proceed in a case, there is no legal basis to keep them in jail on a no bond hold. An amendment removed this clarification, so CFF is now monitoring the bill’s status, but would return to support the bill if the pretrial provisions were added back.
SB25-047: Enforcement of Federal Immigration Law
✘ OPPOSE — POSTPONED INDEFINITELY 🎉
Sponsors: Reps. Brooks, Richardson; Sen. Baisley.
SB25-047 would have removed critical protections for immigrants in Colorado that have been in place for more than 10 years. This bill would have allowed immigration enforcement officers to arrest people in and around local courthouses, permit probation officers to share information with ICE, and opened the door to cities and counties entering into their own contracts to detain immigrants.
HB25-1141: Gift Card & Retail Property Crime Penalties
✘ OPPOSE — POSTPONED INDEFINITELY 🎉
Sponsors: Rep. Bradley; Sen. Carson.
HB25-1141 would have imposed mandatory minimum sentences for people convicted of theft for the third time, even for survival-based theft. This bill would have arbitrarily prioritized punishing shoplifting from corporations and feeds into myths around retail theft rates, which have remained low in Colorado for years.
READ THE BILL →