Study: Solutions for Colorado's crime found in sentencing, ending bond practices

(The Center Square) – A review of Colorado’s crime statistics and legislation is leading a conservative policy organization to recommend changes to sentencing and bonding.

Advance Colorado published a 20-page study with a wide range of statistics on crime across the state. The state was ranked the third-most dangerous in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

“Our recidivism rates are the fourth highest in the country,” wrote Michael Tsogt, a policy analyst at the Advance Colorado Institute and author of the report , "Colorado's Crime Crisis; Keeping Violent Criminals Behind Bars and Off Our Streets." “The crime wave in our beautiful state is not only costing taxpayers billions of dollars, but it is also costing the lives and safety of our fellow Coloradans.”

Tsogt concludes the legislature’s policies contributed to the crime problem by enacting legislation aiding “criminals at the expense of public safety. And secondly, they have defeated proposals, many of which had bipartisan support, that would substantively confront Colorado’s crime problems.”

In 2022, FBI data revealed Colorado had the fourth-highest rating for combined property and violent crimes. The state ranked 31st in 2012. The study noted the Common Sense Institute’s 2022 “Cost of Crime” report stating the total cost of crime, including crimes not reported, was approximately $27.2 billion or $4,623 per citizen.

“Current state leaders in Colorado seem to care more about the perpetrators than the victims of crime,” Tosgt wrote.

The report highlighted House Bill 24-1284 , which would have required courts to set a secured monetary bond if a person is accused of a violent crime, there’s probable cause, and the accused has committed a violent crime within two years or has two or more charges pending for a violent crime. The minimum bond would have been $7,500, but the bill wasn’t voted out of committee.

The study proposes abolishing no-cost personal recognizance bonds for repeat violent criminals.

“Currently, Colorado law allows for PR bonds that let these offenders out with no financial costs,” according to the report. “Simply by the word of violent criminals, our justice system trusts that they will stay out of trouble and return voluntarily for their court date.”

The paper quoted studies showing suspects released under similar bail policies had twice the number of subsequent felony arrests and three times the number of subsequent violent crime arrests.

The study also recommends voters pass a “Truth In Sentencing” initiative on the November ballot. The initiative would require violent criminals to serve at least 85% of their sentences. Currently, approximately 43% of sentences are being served by violent offenders, according to the study.

“Soft-on-crime ideologies and state-level policies and laws have created this mess,” according to the study. “… Colorado must return to responsible leadership and real penalties for violent crime.”