Colorado Democrats are working feverishly this legislative session to increase the rate at which convicted felons are released from our prisons back onto our streets. They claim they must, because of overcrowding and cost. Do not fall for that lie. 

Colorado’s prison overcrowding “crisis” is the predictable, deliberate and unnecessary outcome of Democrat political decision-making that has long prioritized offenders over public safety and victims. It is fixable, but the offender-first Democrats in charge of the General Assembly will never do it. 

Colorado incarcerates 22% less convicted felons today than it did in July 2009, when our population was 1 million people smaller. In fact, Colorado’s inmate numbers have not been this low in 23 years. 

Since the 2009 high-water mark, the Democrat-controlled General Assembly and Democrat governors have collaborated to make it harder to incarcerate felons, easier to reduce prison sentences for committing felonies (including murder), and have made it harder to return felons to prison for violating the terms of their parole. Colorado has 50% more parolees as of 2024 (the last year for which there is DOC published data) than we did in 2003.  

Our prisons have fewer inmates and there are more convicted felons on parole in our communities — and yet, our prisons are supposedly overcrowded?  

If that math isn’t mathing, it is because a Democrat-led prison-closing frenzy began under then-Gov. Bill Ritter in 2010 (22,980 inmates) and continues through Polis (17,362 inmates in 2024). Thus far, Democrats have shuttered seven correctional facilities. 

In 2012, when the Department of Corrections (DOC) inmate population was 3,000 higher than it is now, Hickenlooper closed Fort Lyon Correctional Facility, which had a capacity of more than 1,300 beds. He closed it less than one year before then-Executive Director of the DOC Tom Clements was assassinated in the doorway of his home by a convicted felon who was mistakenly paroled four years early. 

The following year, Hickenlooper closed Colorado State Penitentiary II in Cañon City, which had capacity for 316 high-security (aka “the most dangerous bad guys”) beds. That decision was even more bonkers since Colorado had opened the $220 million facility only two years before that. 

Democrats closed five more prisons in the years since, including: 

• Huerfano County Correctional Facility in 2010 (752 beds) 

• Hudson Correctional Facility in 2013 (1250 beds) 

• Kit Carson Correctional Center in 2016 (1488 beds) 

• Cheyenne Mountain Re-entry Center in 2020 (650 beds) 

• Colorado Correctional Facility at Camp George West in 2020 (150 beds) 

Democrat governors have disappeared nearly 6,000 inmate beds since 2010.  

Coddling convicts 

Meanwhile, over the last 15 years, the General Assembly has continued to water down our laws to keep our prisons empty. Here are some of the “felons need hugs, too” bills that have put more criminals back in our neighborhoods: 

HB 10-1338 allowed two-time convicted felons to be probation eligible — even after subsequent felony convictions. 

HB 10-1360 reduced the amount of time a parole violator could be returned to prison. 

SB 11-276 allowed inmates who had earned their way to administrative segregation  (aka “solitary”) through misconduct to accrue “earned time” to lower their sentences. 

HB 12-1223 allowed felons to be awarded “earned time” when reincarcerated — for violating their parole. 

SB 13-250 reduced the seriousness and penalties for drug crimes. 

SB 15-124 made it harder to revoke a felon’s parole for misconduct. 

HB 17-1308 removed certain mandatory parole conditions, such as drug testing and urinalysis, and allowed parolees to hang out with other criminals without first getting permission from their parole officers. 

HB 17-1326 lowered the amount of time a felon can be sent back to prison for violating parole. Again. 

HB 18-1029 lowered the period of mandatory parole for convicted burglars, drug dealers, and other serious offenders. 

HB 19-1263 reduced numerous drug felonies to misdemeanors. 

SB 19-143 increased discretionary releases to parole, and decreased revocations to back to prison. 

SB 21-271 reduce various felonies to misdemeanors. 

SB 21-124 reduced felony murder to a parole-eligible offense. 

That is just a sample. 

HB 26-1281 (being considered right now) would make first-degree murder (extreme indifference) a parole-eligible offense. 

But wait, there is more. 

Sen. Mike Weissman, D-Aurora, (chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee) and Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver — the patron saints of Colorado criminals — have dropped yet another bill designed to put violent offenders back into our neighborhoods well before they have completed their earned sentences. 

Senate Bill 26-115 is specifically designed to grant early release to felons who have earned lengthy prison sentences from their repeated and violent conduct, including habitual criminals and murderers.  

Those adult prisoners who committed major violent crimes from ages 18-20 will be empowered to seek a shortened sentence from courts, because Weissman and Gonzales claim “brain functioning that guides and aids rational decision-making does not fully develop until a person is in their mid-to-late twenties….” Mid-to-late twenties?! There is no reference to whether this controversial conclusion will cause the Dems to revisit whether those “young” Coloradans should be allowed to vote, join the military, buy marijuana or shrooms, or even run for the state legislature. 

Weissman and Gonzales throw some “get out of prison early” love to those violent and repeat offenders who committed their heinous crimes at age 40 or older. Once they have served a mere 20 calendar years of an earned sentence that could be 30, 40 or more years, they can ask the court to let them out early.  

Why? Because their sentences were unjust or unearned? No. Weissman and Gonzales say it is because it is expensive to care for older inmates and — statistically — they are less likely to re-offend. Punishment and justice are irrelevant to them. 

Punishment not a priority 

Colorado law lists the purposes of sentencing of adult criminals. The number one purpose of criminal sentencing is punishment. Fourth is rehabilitation, below “prevent crime and promote respect for the law by providing an effective deterrent to others likely to commit similar offenses.” This felon-friendly bill turns that list on its head. 

This bill prioritizes 1) offenders, and 2) the state’s claimed (and self-inflicted) budget issues from incarcerating those who victimize us.  In fact, the word “punish” appears only once in the entire bill.  “Deter”— zero times. 

Here is how Weissman and Gonzales have designed the bill to work: 

A 20-year-old shoots up a college class, but succeeds only in maiming and crippling a dozen innocent students, changing their lives forever. A 19-year-old and his like-aged friends set fire to a house in an act of revenge and mistakenly burn to death innocent parents and their teenage daughters. A 40-year-old abuser beats his girlfriend’s 6th-grader to death. A repeat drunk driver drives his truck into a group of state troopers, killing three of them. Each criminal receives a sentence of 100 years or more in prison. Under this misguided bill, each would be eligible to ask the court to let them out after…only 20 years in prison. That is not justice. 

Like all “we shouldn’t cage anyone” extremists in our Capitol, these sponsors invoke the  “the undeveloped brain” as an excuse for letting violent young adults — even killers — out early.  

Similarly, they state that violent felons north of 60 years old are less likely to be violent. So what? There are those among us who deserve cages, who have earned incarceration, and whether they pose a risk to re-offend or not — they should be locked up.  

That is called “punishment.” It is a measure of justice. It also serves as a deterrent to prevent future crime — not just a deterrent to others who may be inclined to engage in evil — but by the offender himself. The law-abiding deserve to be free of these offenders. 

The bill recklessly seeks to create a potential cap on sentences for violent and repeat offenders based on age alone. If you commit the same heinous acts from ages 21 to 39, and earn the same lengthy sentence — this bill does not apply to you. 

This heartless bill discounts the countless conversations with victims about how their victimizer, perhaps the killer of their loved one, would be in prison for many decades with a particular plea bargain, or as a result of the victim enduring brutal cross examination in front of a jury who convicts the violent offender who hurt them. Past sentencing — a case-specific and many times painful process — would become instantly irrelevant. In nearly all cases, it would be impossible to recreate as judges have retired and victims have moved on or passed away. This bill will rip the emotional scab of victims’ psyches who foolishly believed their victimizer was safely locked away in prison because that is what they were told. Disgusting. 

Soaring crime 

The combined effects of decreasing the penalties for crime and opening wide the prison cell doors are obvious. From 2010 to 2025, Colorado’s population grew by 19.5%. Crime exploded well beyond that. Over that same period, Colorado saw a 49% increase in violent crime, including murder (+76%) and aggravated assault (+85%). Despite Colorado’s 15-year “we hate the 2nd Amendment” approach to over-regulating firearms for the law abiding, violent crimes with firearms — those are the ones committed by the criminals who tend to ignore all the new gun laws — soared by 116%. 

The impact on property crimes was predictably similar. Theft from businesses increased 62%, business burglaries went up 44%, and fraud grew by 38%. Despite a renewed and vigorous attack on motor vehicle theft after Colorado rejected Attorney General Phil Weiser’s “lock ‘em up after stealing three to four cars in three months” approach, Colorado’s numbers are still 74% higher than in 2010. Of most concern, is that the number of those thefts coming from Coloradans’ homes has exploded by 125%. 

Enter four of the most offender friendly legislators under the Gold Dome this year to roll out Senate Bill 26-036, artfully entitled “Prison Population Management Measure.” It is an effort to further empty the prisons onto our streets. Those who want to decrease the likelihood of even more crime and victimization should encourage a “no” vote. And then vote those legislators out of office. 

Reclassifying and lowering the penalties for crimes and parole violations may reduce the number of felonies filed in court, and might reduce the number of felons returned to prison, but each makes us demonstrably less safe and creates numerous more victims. It is not justice. 

We need more prison capacity to incarcerate Colorado’s growing felon population, not less. And Coloradans deserve legislators who prioritize protecting us, our families and our properties — not those who seek to victimize us. The next election is less than nine months away. 

This election cycle, a critical question to ask anyone seeking to be our next governor, attorney general, or state legislator: Does Colorado need more or less prisons? 

George Brauchler is the 23rd Judicial District attorney and former district attorney for the 18th Judicial District. He has served as an Owens Early Criminal Justice Fellow at the Common Sense Institute. Follow him on Twitter