{"id":802006,"date":"2019-12-04T16:36:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T23:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=375479"},"modified":"2019-12-04T16:36:47","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T23:36:47","slug":"colorado-proposal-for-weekend-bond-hearings-could-have-big-financial-impacts-in-summit-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/colorado-proposal-for-weekend-bond-hearings-could-have-big-financial-impacts-in-summit-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado proposal for weekend bond hearings could have big financial impacts in Summit County"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Summit County Justice Center in Breckenridge. The Colorado Legislature is considering the possibility of a new law that would require all in-custody defendants to have a bond hearing within 48 hours of arrest. <\/strong>
Summit Daily file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 Proposed changes to bond hearing policies and procedures around the state could have significant impacts on the Fifth Judicial District, including right here in Summit County.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Gov. Jared Polis signed the Prompt Pretrial Liberty and Fairness bill<\/a> into law, which outlines changes to existing bond posting protocols, including how quickly defendants must be released from jail after posting bond, and setting limits on processing fees. But the law also requires the chief judge of each of the state\u2019s 22 judicial districts to develop a plan for the possibility of a new law that would require all in-custody defendants to have a bond hearing within 48 hours of arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the larger problem that\u2019s being addressed by a statute like this is to make an effort to ensure that people have an opportunity to post bond as soon as possible, so people are not unnecessarily detained when that can be avoided,\u201d said Fifth Judicial District chief judge Mark Thompson, who noted there were definitive pros and cons to the proposal. \u201cSomething like that is disruptive to anyone\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outcome of the hearing isn\u2019t the issue so much as the ability for these people to have due process, be heard and allow the court to make an informed decision for if they should be detained pretrial, if they should be supervised or if they should be given a standard bond that just prohibits them from reoffending.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Colorado, there are a number of charges that don\u2019t allow defendants to post bond before seeing a judge, including acts of domestic violence, stalking and sex offenses. For people in custody, the law would undoubtedly make a difference. If someone was arrested, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, for example, court closures mean that person would be jailed until the following Monday \u2014 five days \u2014 until getting a bond hearing with a judge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndividuals can be arrested on a Friday afternoon, and on a three-day weekend, they could be stuck in jail until Tuesday,\u201d said Denise Maes, a public policy director with the American Civil Liberties Union in Colorado. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve found is that in some metro areas, their dockets can be so heavy that a person doesn\u2019t get a hearing until Wednesday. So now someone with just a minor infraction could be spending a lot of time in jail. They\u2019re presumptively innocent and absolutely should be guaranteed time for quicker hearings. \u2026 There are good legal reasons this should be put into the state\u2019s statutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the new law is passed, it could mandate that courts hold bond hearings within 48 hours of an individual\u2019s arrest. That means courts around the state would not only have to adjust their holiday plans but also would be required to begin offering weekend bond hearings. And for communities in the Fifth Judicial District \u2014 Summit, Eagle, Clear Creek and Lake counties \u2014 it could present some major problems.<\/p>\n

In October, Thompson provided the state with a report of current conditions in the district and a presumptive plan for how to make the proposed regulations work if they pass during the legislative session next year.<\/p>\n

Between district and county court hearings, the combined caseload in the district for the 2019 fiscal year was 14,124 cases, including nearly 4,500 in Summit County. Despite those numbers, an average of about eight defendants would require weekend bond hearings each week under the proposed requirement.<\/p>\n

Thompson\u2019s report notes that within the district, the most practical way to make the proposition work would be through careful planning and further integration of technology into the process. The plan essentially calls for a rotating schedule of courthouses open for half a day on Sundays, split between Breckenridge, Georgetown and Eagle.<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s 10 judges also would handle hearings on a rotating basis. Because five judges currently reside in Summit County, Thompson expects Summit ultimately would handle about 50% of all weekend hearings. Ideally, inmates could teleconference in for hearings with a judge from their respective jails, cutting down on travel expenses and hassles.<\/p>\n

But part of the problem is that it takes a lot more than just a judge and a defendant to hold a hearing. In order for a defendant to phone in, they\u2019ll need a deputy, who otherwise wouldn\u2019t be working, to handle the call at a cost of about $50 an hour. The courthouse also would need at least two additional deputies to provide security. Because the hearings will still be public, it also means courts will have to spend extra on things like snow removal, maintenance and cleaning costs.<\/p>\n

More directly, the proposal would mean considerably more work for the district attorney\u2019s office \u2014 an estimated $19,000 increase to the budget annually \u2014 and the regional public defender\u2019s office, which staffs six attorneys. In his report, Thompson also wrote that it likely would require the addition of a \u201cspecialist\u201d who could handle things like paperwork without creating an undue impact on existing staff.<\/p>\n

Of note, Maes said the governor\u2019s office has been working to set aside funds for the potential expansion, though it\u2019s unclear how it will be allocated or to whom. But others aren\u2019t so certain the state will be much help.<\/p>\n

Fifth Judicial District Attorney Bruce Brown said it was unlikely the state would help to front the bill for all the additional costs and continued to say the additional work could have detrimental affects on staffing for his and the public defender\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state doesn\u2019t have the money to fund these programs across the state,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIt\u2019s highly unlikely the Legislature would shoulder that burden. If they enact the law, that burden will go to the local governments, and they\u2019ll expect the local governments to pick up the tab.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have challenges attracting young lawyers to the office due to a lot of factors including cost of housing. Each time you put a new layer or a new requirement in terms of time at work, it takes away from one of our best selling points of living here, which is the quality of life. It\u2019s not insignificant. We\u2019ll adapt and find suitable lawyers to staff our office well. But the realities of having choices in a job market are inescapable. This makes our jobs a lot less attractive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown continued to say that while the idea could create substantial problems in more rural and less dense districts, it would be possible to achieve the state\u2019s goals if they sign off on Thompson\u2019s planned use of technology. Brown continued to say that the better solution is to better use other programs, like his office\u2019s felony summons program for nonviolent offenders, to help reduce the number of people in jail in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know what the Legislature is going to require,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIt\u2019s a minor nightmare. But I think we can achieve the desired result. \u2026 Technology allows us to get a solution in a cost effective manner. But if every county in a district were required to support this plan with an open courtroom as if it were a regular work day, that wouldn\u2019t be feasible or practical. \u2026 We all need to recognize that while police do work 24 hours a day, that not every facet of the criminal justice system is capable of working around the clock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson also expressed optimism that the proposal was solving a real problem but voiced that the state likely would have to make concessions in understanding that more rural communities could be slammed with financial and staffing hardships if things aren\u2019t done right.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of logistical hurdles to jump over for this to happen,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cBut we\u2019ll get it done. If the Legislature thinks this is the right thing to do, it\u2019s not our job to question their motives. Our job is to follow the law. So we\u2019ll do it, and we\u2019ll do it well. The biggest concern the courts have is making sure it\u2019s not an unfunded mandate. Because it does have fiscal impacts, and if the Legislature wants us to do something, it\u2019s important they provide the funds for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Summit County Justice Center in Breckenridge. The Colorado Legislature is considering the possibility of a new law that would require all in-custody defendants to have a bond hearing within 48 hours of arrest. Summit Daily file photo BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 Proposed changes to bond hearing policies and procedures around the state could have significant impacts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-802006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 04:55:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}