Event description
“Please join me and my legislative colleagues representing Jefferson County as we recap the 2021 Legislative Session and look forward to Colorado's continuing recovery from the pandemic and the next legislative session.
This event will be held on Zoom, and streamed live to Facebook. You can register for the Zoom webinar here:”
What to say
Tell the panel that Colorado must end the criminalization of poverty by ending cash bail and arrested systemic racism in policing by reducing arrests for low level offenses that do not affect public safety.
Some talking points
Black people in Colorado are arrested at 8 x the rate per population than white people for low-level offenses and killed by police at quadruple the rate. Latinx people are killed at double the rate.
Colorado’s jail populations have exploded 800% since the 70s as arrests have become the first response to homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse.
60% of Coloradans sitting in jail are presumptively innocent and not there because they are dangerous, but because they are too poor to pay bond.
71% of ALL arrests since 2013 have been for low-level offenses like traffic violations and petty offenses that do not effect public safety.
54% of the Coloradans killed by police since 2013 started as a response to a low-level or NO level offense like a mental health call.