http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/ en Copyright 2008 Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:08:21 -0700 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss State prisons in Las Animas, Pueblo and Fremont counties will see 280 more jobs and 173 more inmate beds if the Colorado Legislature goes along with a construction priority list approved on Thursday. The list of major state construction projects that the Capital Development Committee forwards to the Joint Budget Committee each year includes adding more beds to the Fort Lyon Correctional Facility, but losing bed space at two other facilities in the region. The prison changes were an addition to other Southern Colorado projects that also were included on the list. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030503 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030503 Crime and Penal Reform pueblochieftain.com Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:08:21 -0700 The report said prison growth and higher incarceration rates do not reflect an increase in the nation’s overall population. Instead, it said, more people are behind bars mainly because of tough sentencing measures, such as three-strikes laws, that result in longer prison stays. “For some groups, the incarceration numbers are especially startling,” the report said. “While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine.” The racial disparity for women also is stark. One of every 355 white women age 35 to 39 is behind bars, compared with one of every 100 black women in that age group. The nationwide figures, as of Jan. 1, include 1,596,127 people in state and federal prisons and 723,131 in local jails. That’s out of almost 230 million U.S. adults. The report said the U.S. incarcerates more people than any other nation, far ahead of more populous China with 1.5 million people behind bars. It said the U.S. also is the leader in inmates per capita (750 per 100,000 people), ahead of Russia (628 per 100,000) and other former Soviet bloc nations that round out the Top 10. The U.S. also is among the leaders in capital punishment. Amnesty International says its 53 executions in 2006 were exceeded only by China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Sudan. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030508 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030508 Crime and Penal Reform www.gazette.com Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:06:13 -0700 Colorado spends a higher percentage of its state budget on prisons than all but three states, according to a new study by the Pew Center on the States. The study found that 8.8% of Colorado's general fund was spent on corrections in 2007. Only Oregon, Florida and Vermont had higher percentages, the study found. Colorado spent $599 million on corrections last year and had a prison population of 22,841 as of Jan. 1, 2008, the study said. The national average was 6.8%. In addition, the study found that for every dollar Colorado spent on higher education, the state spent 78 cents on prisons. That ranked as the 11th highest rate in the U.S., the study said. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030521 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030521 Crime and Penal Reform www.rockymountainnews.com Fri, 29 Feb 2008 07:57:26 -0700 District Attorney Carol Chambers has billed the state for more than $200,000 in her quest to convict and put to death two inmates who are charged with killing another inmate four years ago. Westword reported Thursday that Chambers asked the Colorado Department of Corrections for $204,000 for work last year in the prosecutions of David Bueno and Alejandro Perez. Both have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jeffrey Heird at the Limon Correctional Facility in Lincoln County in 2004. Chambers is the DA for Arapahoe, Lincoln, Douglas and Elbert counties. Under Colorado law, counties can be reimbursed by the DOC to prosecute crimes committed in state prisons. Chambers was in meetings Thursday, said her spokeswoman, Kathleen Walsh, and could not be reached for comment. But Walsh said the DA's office has "charged the proper amount" in the prosecution of Bueno and Perez. She said she could not go into specifics because the cases are ongoing. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030458 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030458 Crime and Penal Reform www.denverpost.com Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:41:52 -0700 Violence between inmates at the Larimer County Detention Center ticked up slightly last year, a rise that jail managers attribute in part to gang confrontations. Jail statistics show 63 reports of inmate-on-inmate violence last year, compared to 57 in 2006. That's a 10.5 percent increase. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030411 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030411 Crime and Penal Reform coloradoan.com Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:08:57 -0700 The Garfield County Sheriff’s Office is encouraging participation in the County Sheriffs of Colorado’s Honorary Membership Program. In a news release, Sheriff Lou Vallario wrote, “As Sheriff of Garfield County, I would like to discuss an issue very close to each of us — crime prevention. My office is committed to making our neighborhoods safer places to live. By doing so, we will improve the quality of life for individuals and families … both young and old, it is imperative that we seek programs to reduce the negative influences that crime has on our children and to help safeguard the elderly. “In the past year, this office has worked extremely hard to make significant improvements in our county. Through community-based programs and an emphasis on professionalism, we hope to reduce the number of gun-related crimes, thefts, incidents of domestic violence and other disturbances.” The statement outlines a list of plans including: providing officers with the resources to improve preparedness and response capabilities, notifying victims and keeping citizens informed, promoting the importance of neighborhood watch programs, continuing specialized training and crime prevention measures, protecting senior citizens from acts of violence, neglect and fraud, increasing drug awareness, developing opportunities for law enforcement to work more closely with shelters and organizations to provide counseling and support, integrating rehabilitation programs to help criminals become productive members of society and implementing activities to redirect kids from illegal activity. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030481 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030481 Crime and Penal Reform www.postindependent.com Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:19:41 -0700 Shawna Nelson tried to explain Thursday why witnesses and a good portion of physical evidence pointed to her as the one who shot Heather Garraus execution-style in January 2007. At the end of her nearly three hours of testimony, she denied plotting to kill Garraus, who was married to her lover, then-Greeley police Officer Ignacio Garraus. "Did you shoot her?" asked her lawyer, Kevin Strobel. "No, I didn't," Nelson said. Closing arguments in the first-degree-murder case are expected today. Nelson testified she wanted to protect Heather Garraus and told her in a telephone conversation in 2004 that she was not having an affair with her husband. "I told her I loved her and I would never get between her and Ig," Nelson said. But she lied to Heather Garraus then, Nelson said, adding that her conversation happened about a month after she told Ignacio she was pregnant with their child. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030459 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030459 Crime and Penal Reform www.denverpost.com Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:00:38 -0700 Accused murderer Shawna Nelson calmly refuted the charges against her Thursday, saying she was at a liquor store when her ex-lover's wife was gunned down last year and that she had never worn shoes found near the scene that contained her DNA. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030408 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030408 Crime and Penal Reform coloradoan.com Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:00:12 -0700 In a phone call Shawna Nelson made to her husband from Weld County Jail, she often blacked out, and that she had no memory of what happened the night Heather Garraus was shot except that she woke up in front of College Green Liquors. “I don’t know Ken, I mean I don’t remember anything,” Nelson told her husband, Ken Nelson. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030418 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030418 Crime and Penal Reform greeleytribune.com Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:00:00 -0700 Moments after the prosecution rested its case of first-degree murder against Shawna Nelson, she took the stand in her own defense. Three times Nelson said she did not shoot, or have anything to do with the shooting, of Heather Garraus. Nelson faces life in prison for the execution-style shooting of Garraus on Jan. 23, 2007. Nelson had an affair with Garraus' husband, Ignacio Garraus, and gave birth to his son. Defense attorney Kevin Strobel led Nelson step-by-step through her affair with Ignacio Garraus, her relationship with Michelle Moore and her communications with Garraus; many of her accounts conflicted with prior testimony this week. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030420 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030420 Crime and Penal Reform greeleytribune.com Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:00:00 -0700 A 35-year-old murder case will go to trial in Arapahoe County after a judge denied a request Wednesday to dismiss the case. Arapahoe County District Judge Valeria Spencer ruled there is sufficient evidence still available to try Duane Frye, now 82, for the murder of his wife, Elizabeth Frye, on June 9, 1973. Frye, who is in failing health, will be arraigned next month. The case, which involves a number of prominent players in Denver's legal community, was the subject of a popular book, Quiet Time, written in 2004 by Stephanie Shaffer Kane, who was engaged to the Fryes' son, Douglas, at the time of the murder and is now married to U.S. District Senior Judge John Kane. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030447 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/29/#030447 Crime and Penal Reform www.denverpost.com Fri, 29 Feb 2008 04:46:18 -0700 A Grand Junction lawmaker’s bill to create a felony drunken-driving charge cleared its first hurdle Wednesday afternoon, but only after it was significantly altered to lower its price tag. Republican Rep. Steve King’s amended proposal, House Bill 1313, would make drivers convicted of certain crimes after July 1 eligible for a felony driving under the influence charge. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030264 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030264 Crime and Penal Reform www.gjsentinel.com Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:46:03 -0700 The House on Wednesday approved funding for metal detectors and additional security at the Capitol despite some lawmakers' objections that it was a waste of money. Criticism of the security measures crossed party lines and came just a day after a man was arrested after he walked onto the House floor uninvited and shouted at lawmakers. The unarmed man, later arrested after a scuffle with state troopers, said he wanted to address lawmakers. Metal detectors and more state troopers were added to the Capitol in September after an incident in July in which a trooper shot and killed an armed, deranged man inside the building. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030231 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030231 Crime and Penal Reform www.denverpost.com Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:06:20 -0700 The Colorado Capitol is a state structure that should be left wide-open to the public, some lawmakers said Wednesday. But considering today's troubled times, and the public's general acceptance of at least basic security measures, metal detectors should continue to be used in the historic structure, other legislators countered. The opposing sides emerged during debate over whether the state should spend an additional $490,000 to beef up security at the Capitol as a result of last summer's fatal shooting of a mentally ill man who threatened Gov. Bill Ritter. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030277 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030277 Crime and Penal Reform pueblochieftain.com Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:39:40 -0700 Larimer County prosecutors are wading through a list of more than 1,000 convicts as they consider which cases to review - and who might ultimately go free - in light of advanced DNA testing. District Attorney Larry Abrahamson announced the plan to review cases after a judge freed Timothy Masters from his life sentence on Jan. 22. The judge said new DNA evidence pointed toward a new suspect in the 1987 Peggy Hettrick murder and vacated Masters' conviction after Masters had served nearly nine years in prison. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030198 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030198 Crime and Penal Reform coloradoan.com Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:37:15 -0700 A day after an apparently deranged man barged into the House of Representatives, state lawmakers debated the expense of metal detectors at the Capitol. A number of lawmakers decried the new security measures at "the people's house," which had no metal detectors until last fall, when a tuxedo-clad man was shot by a state trooper outside the governor's office after he displayed a gun and declared himself emperor of Colorado. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030247 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030247 Crime and Penal Reform durangoherald.com Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:57:05 -0700 Mesa County’s top judge said last week his confidence in the county’s Criminal Justice Services Department has been “significantly eroded” after an investigation revealed some defendants were being held illegally in Mesa County Jail. The county could face a federal investigation, and the district’s judges may refuse to sentence defendants to the community corrections program if the issue continues, 21st Judicial District Chief Judge David Bottger wrote in a letter dated Feb. 20. As of Feb. 15, 10 defendants were in custody illegally and had been held for between six days and more than five months, according to Bottger’s own investigation. All defendants had been sentenced to community corrections and were placed either on day-reporting or nonresidential status as they were awaiting a bed at the facility. Bottger said the defendants were sent back to jail for alleged violations, but they were held without bond and without a judge determining whether the arrest was legitimate. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030268 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030268 Crime and Penal Reform www.gjsentinel.com Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:44:32 -0700 Prosecutors in Shawna Nelson's murder trial on Wednesday introduced evidence indicating that she used her husband's gun to shoot her romantic rival, Heather Garraus. Witnesses spent the remainder of the day describing Nelson's hatred for Garraus and her love for Ignacio Garraus. Alan Hammond of the Aurora police department's Colorado Bureau of Investigations' forensics lab, said two shell casings recovered from the crime scene where Heather Garraus was killed matched Nelson's husband's .40-caliber Glock model 22. Ken Nelson is a former Weld County Sheriff's deputy. Police have accused him of removing the gun from the truck his wife was driving before she was arrested. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030204 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030204 Crime and Penal Reform greeleytribune.com Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:00:36 -0700 Weld County District Court Judge Roger Klein sent jurors home early Wednesday so defense attorneys and prosecutors could reconcile some issues with exhibits prosecutors plan to present today. Larimer County prosecutor Greg Lammons said the prosecution has four witnesses remaining to testify, and the prosecution should conclude today. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030200 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030200 Crime and Penal Reform coloradoan.com Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:00:15 -0700 Any woman who got between Shawna Nelson and her married lover felt Nelson's wrath, including murder victim Heather Garraus, according to testimony Wednesday. Nelson is being tried on a charge of first-degree murder after Garraus was shot execution-style in front of her Greeley office on Jan. 23, 2007. Nelson carried on a three-year affair with Greeley police officer Ignacio Garraus. Prosecution witnesses Wednesday told jurors Nelson despised Heather Garraus and saw her as an obstacle to a life with Ignacio and the child they conceived. Many were co-workers of Nelson, who once worked as a Greeley police dispatcher. Former dispatcher Jennifer Morrison said Nelson called Heather Garraus "fat," a "hag" and "disgusting." Nelson also took out her frustration with Garraus by pretending to shoot her at a target range, Morrison said. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030234 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030234 Crime and Penal Reform www.denverpost.com Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:00:02 -0700 The Weld County Jail was built to hold 405 inmates. It routinely averages 500. Officials hope a new $17 million wing will alleviate overcrowding at the jail when it’s ready for occupancy in March. “The objective and goal in building the new wing is to bring the numbers back down to capacity,” said Sterling Geesaman, Weld County Sheriff’s Office bureau chief. The four-year project adds 86,000 square feet to the jail and bring its capacity to 779 inmates. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030201 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030201 Crime and Penal Reform www.timescall.com Thu, 28 Feb 2008 05:35:27 -0700 Residents of a local subdivision are working to reduce crime in a way that focuses on individual homes — the crime-free lifestyles program. Fox Meadows is the first neighborhood in Montrose to begin implementing techniques developed by the International Crime Free Association to reduce the potential for residential crimes such as burglary and vandalism. "In the last three to four years, we've started to witness significant increase in crime," resident Ken Holyfield said Wednesday. Holyfield is also a member of the Fox Meadows homeowners association. He's lived in the subdivision for seven years. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030250 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030250 Crime and Penal Reform montrosepress.com Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:55:49 -0700 Laurie Stolen is proud of the work that goes into preparing and serving an estimated 14,000 nutritious meals weekly, even though her diners don't really have much choice in their dining options. Stolen, inmate services director at the Larimer County Detention Center, oversees the jail's kitchen staff, a mix of employees from contractor Aramark and nearly 50 "trustee" inmates. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030197 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030197 Crime and Penal Reform coloradoan.com Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:37:35 -0700 A Florence inmate who allegedly planned to throw hot wax on a congressman visiting a prison was convicted Tuesday of assaulting a guard by throwing the wax on him instead. Chief U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham said the inmate, Jay Vaughan Gregory, made "a strongly implied threat" in his closing arguments in a two-day trial. Nottingham ordered that Gregory's copy of the jurors' names be turned back to court staff "before you have any opportunity to copy" them. A person familiar with the case said Gregory, 51, is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, a violent gang that operates in numerous prisons. Another person who attended the trial and had official knowledge of it said Gregory, in his closing argument, said, "We die with swords in our hands and not with chains on our ankles and we will hold each and everyone responsible for the actions that occurred in the courtroom." http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030270 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/28/#030270 Crime and Penal Reform pueblochieftain.com Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:42:57 -0700 Aurora's Police Department is efficient, well-managed and has minimal complaints from the public, a study has found. The California-based Matrix Consulting Group found that the department also does well with community policing and in how it clears cases compared with the national average. "I think this is a ringing affirmation on how we deploy our patrol officers," Police Chief Dan Oates said. The group did find several areas for improvement, including speeding up the time officers spend in processing prisoners and better tracking of response times to crimes. http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/27/#030004 http://media.progressnowaction.org/clips/2008/02/27/#030004 Crime and Penal Reform www.denverpost.com Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:05:33 -0700