Juvenile-Justice Advocacy Groups Seek Change in Colorado

Following a series about juvenile offenders in Colorado prisons in both Denver papers, a group is seeking support for legislation in the Colorado House that would lessen the sentences for juvenile offenders. From the Rocky Mountain News:

A juvenile-justice advocacy organization called on the state legislature Tuesday to change the way violent child offenders are sentenced in Colorado.
Pendulum Juvenile Justice rallied its advocates at the state Capitol in support of House Bill 1315, which would change sentencing for Class 1 felonies, including murder.
The bill would allow juveniles convicted of murder in the adult system to be eligible for parole after 40 years behind bars...The group also made some demands of its own, including:
• Asking for a bipartisan commission to review every case of a juvenile tried as an adult and sentenced to adult prison.
• Calling on the legislature to model Colorado's juvenile-justice system after the system in Texas, home of the Giddings State School. There, violent child offenders can be paroled in four to six years after completing intensive treatment, the group said.
• Asking the governor to consider clemency for juveniles serving time in adult prisons.
• Requesting that district attorneys stop trying juveniles in adult court until "a complete review and overhaul of the system is undertaken."

Click here to read the article.

Click here to read the recent series in the Denver Post.

--Tom Hayes