Colorado lawmakers plan return of criminal justice commission

Colorado legislators are working to launch two commissions that will help shape criminal justice policy statewide into the near future, an effort that’s drawn the praise of policymakers while reigniting the same simmering tensions that helped sink a predecessor last year.

Under recommendations issued last month by a working group convened by Gov. Jared Polis, the formation of criminal justice policy in Colorado would be guided by two commissions, one focused on juvenile matters, the other adult. The two bodies would oversee specific task forces — focusing on topics like sentencing or police reform — which would, in turn, provide recommendations to the larger group.

The commissions would be charged with providing “data-informed, evidence-based” criminal policy recommendations, both to “reduce incarceration, disparities and disproportionalities” and to improve “safety, health and well-being of all Colorado communities,” according to the recommendations. Those policies could then be turned into legislation, with the commissions’ approval acting as a boost in the Capitol and to Polis.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers are now working to turn the working group’s recommendations into legislation in the coming weeks, aiming to send them to Polis before the legislative session ends in early May.

The two commissions would replace the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, the longstanding policy group that lawmakers allowed to expire last May. The CCJJ, as it was colloquially known, had guided criminal justice policy in the Capitol for years: Policies approved by the commission had a stronger chance of becoming law, while those that were denied or hadn’t been presented to the commission were more easily rejected.

That gave law enforcement officials and the governor’s office a stronger say in shaping — or, critics said, smothering — policy before it hit the Capitol. Indeed, Polis first called for a replacement CCJJ when he vetoed a bill passed last year that would’ve studied the costs of the War on Drugs. In that call, he said the issue should’ve been examined by the commission.

Concerns about CCJJ’s structure — and its ability to be influenced — spurred House lawmakers to allow it to expire last spring.

Over the course of the CCJJ’s life, “views of how we build policy evolved to the point where it was very much needed to get a fresh view of how we build a policy creation team or commission,” said Maureen Cain, the director of legislative policy and external communications for the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender. She chaired the CCJJ replacement group with Tom Raynes, who leads the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council.

Cain added that she “felt very strongly that the CCJJ had done good work, but the time was ripe to look at the method of identifying issues — the membership, the goals and objectives, the mission — with a fresh set of eyes.”

In a statement, Polis spokeswoman Shelby Wieman said the governor appreciated the working group’s “thoughtful recommendations” and looked forward to seeing the legislation putting them into place “to help make Colorado safer.”

Cain and Raynes praised the work of the CCJJ replacement group, which included attorneys, law enforcement officials and advocates. They said it had been responsive to criticisms of its predecessor. Advocates and reformers had argued that the legislature should create individual task forces to study specific issues, rather than a standing body overseen under the executive branch and the governor. Raynes said it was important that the CCJJ’s replacement be as independent from any one branch as possible.

The recommendations met those requests halfway: The two commissions will be housed under the Department of Public Safety, which is part of the executive branch. The bodies will be permanent — at least for the foreseeable future — but will include issue-specific task forces beneath them. Juvenile and adult matters will now be handled separately, rather than lumped together.

While reformers praised those changes, they remained skeptical of the broader approach. Several referred to the new commissions as CCJJ 2.0.

Policymakers “worked hard under very short timelines and came up with a recommendation that reflects some community input,” said Rebecca Wallace, the policy director for the Colorado Freedom Fund, a cash-bail and criminal justice reform advocacy group. “But in many — too many — places, it replicates the CCJJ.”

Still, critics said the two commissions would still have too many “system actors,” meaning officials who work within the criminal justice system like prosecutors and law enforcement. Under the recommendations now being turned into legislation, the two commissions would feature law enforcement, prosecutors, victims, advocates and experts, as well as representatives from the legislature and state agencies in nonvoting capacities.