Let’s be clear: There is no “prison crowding” crisis in Colorado. The real crisis is our Democratic legislature’s quest to free as many convicts as it can — public safety be damned. To make that happen, lawmakers will grasp at any pretext, even if it has to gin one up. 

And all too often, Gov. Jared Polis has been willing to go along with them.

Last week, Polis signed two more bills that will speed the return of more lawbreakers to the streets. Probably most will commit more crimes. Some will be violent. Many will involve theft and burglary. Plenty will involve illicit drugs. 

The upshot will be to further undermine safety in Colorado communities in the name of “justice reform.” Senate Bills 26-158 and 26-159, now law, are yet more attempts by the justice reformers to rewrite the rules of right and wrong — giving perpetrators a big hug — to the public’s peril.

SB 158 tugs at the public’s heartstrings by shortening time served by juvenile offenders. Tragically, of course, teens can and do commit crimes, and the perpetrators often continue to pose a threat not only to society but especially to other youths. This measure cuts them loose sooner. It adds the state board of parole as an entity that may approve an application for early parole for a juvenile offender who has completed a program supposedly showing they’ve mended their ways. The board could approve parole if the governor doesn’t act in 60 days. 

SB 158’s sponsors are among the usual suspects of the justice-reform crowd — state Sens. Mike Weissman, of Aurora, and Matt Ball of Denver, and Democratic state Reps. Michael Carter of Aurora, and Cecilia Espenoza of Denver. 

Weissman is joined by more of the usual suspects — Democratic state Sen. Julie Gonzales of Denver, and state Reps. Javier Mabrey, of Denver, and Matthew Martinez, of Monte Vista — on SB 159.

That measure adjusts “earned time” formulas for inmates — i.e., the time inmates can shorten their sentences after supposedly accruing it for good behavior. Good behavior means they don’t commit more crimes behind bars. Which translates to serving less time for crimes already committed. SB 159 would shorten sentences even further, with more generous earned time.

Both bills effectively shift and scatter authority — from the governor to the parole board in the case of SB 158, and from judges to the Department of Corrections, i.e., the bureaucracy, in the case of SB 159. Meaning, both new laws now will provide cover for earlier release of convicts.

Meanwhile, another measure setting more convicts free, Senate Bill 26-036, awaits the governor’s signature or — dare we hope? — veto. The bill’s provisions include transitioning inmates out of community corrections “halfway houses”; considering “alternate sanctions” for technical parole violations, and, yes, giving inmates even more “earned time” for early release.

The public premise of all such legislation is it eases overcrowding in Colorado’s prisons. Never mind there still actually are empty beds behind bars. More to the point, it is the legislature itself that has been shutting down prisons over the past decade and a half, as detailed for Gazette readers by 23rd Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler in a recent Sunday Perspective. 

Not surprisingly, while ruling Democrats were closing prisons, crime soared, as detailed in groundbreaking research by Colorado’s Common Sense Institute,

Hence, the state’s current predicament. Close enough prisons, and those remaining open will be “overcrowded.” 

Isn’t it nifty how that works out for the justice reformers? Too bad it doesn’t work for anybody else.