COLORADO SPRINGS — In a compromise applauded by many stakeholders, state lawmakers are advancing a bill that aims to address rising juvenile crime across Colorado.
State legislators voted 12-1 during a hearing on Tuesday afternoon to pass House Bill 25-1146 out of the House Health and Human Services Committee with a few major changes. The original bill proposed an increase in the state's juvenile detention bed cap from 215 to 254 beds. The amended version of the bill does away with a blanket bed cap increase, and instead allows for expanded use of 39 emergency detention beds.
The legislation modifies current criteria for using emergency beds so that they can be used without court orders. The proposed criteria only allow emergency bed use if all other detention beds are occupied in the district. The legislation requires facilities to show they are working to find community-based services to treat youth and also establishes a pilot program to install body-worn cameras on facility staff.
The City of Colorado Springs said it's seen a 60% increase in the number of violent juvenile suspects since 2021. Colorado Springs Police said juveniles make up the vast majority of suspects in the dozens of smash-and-grab burglaries that have plagued business owners over the past year.
In previous interviews with News5, Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez and 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen both said increasing the juvenile detention bed cap is one solution to address rising violent juvenile crime. The two said judges have to make tough decisions about who to let out of detention when another juvenile arrives because facilities are often operating at capacity.
"What we know now is that we're almost always operating at capacity, meaning that there's always 27 kids in custody. So if a kid commits a violent offense and is put into custody pending trial, that means another kid has to be pushed out of the other side and back into a home life that's not supportive and law-abiding," said District Attorney Allen.
"When we go back and recontact them and rearrest them... they are so often telling our detectives, 'Okay, yeah, I'll be out and I'll be doing this again tomorrow,'" said Chief Vasquez.
In 2003, Colorado legislators set a 479-bed cap on juvenile detention facilities. Over the years, the statutory cap has been cut by more than half and now stands at 215 beds, with 22 emergency beds available under certain circumstances. Each of the eight youth detention centers across the state has its own number of beds allocated under the law. For example, Zebulon Pike Youth Services Center in Colorado Springs is allocated 27 beds while the Pueblo Youth Services Center is allocated 19 beds.
Several district attorneys, including 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason and 6th Judicial District Attorney Sean Murray, spoke in favor of the legislation to increase access to emergency detention beds during Tuesday's hearing.
Anaya Robinson, a senior policy strategist with the ACLU of Colorado, said the bill would help reduce the strain on judicial districts while providing support for youth. In a statement to News5, Robinson said the following:
"We believe the focus must remain on getting kids out of detention as quickly as possible and into supportive services and placements. Annually, about one third of kids in detention are simply awaiting those mitigating placements and services. This makes evident the fact that Colorado isn’t doing what it needs to as a state to ensure current or future community safety. As amended, HB25-1146 stands to tackle that issue and provide deflection to get kids connected to those services even more quickly."
News5 reached out to the Division of Youth Services (DYS) for data on how many juveniles were currently being detained at youth detention facilities across the state on Tuesday. DYS sent data showing 170 detention beds were currently taken out of the 215 beds allowed under state law. DYS data showed that 26 out of the 27 beds at Zebluon Pike Youth Services Center in Colorado Springs were occupied on Tuesday while 13 out of 19 available beds were taken at the Pueblo Youth Services Center.
The bill now moves to the House Appropriations Committee for more discussion. Rep. Regina English, who represents El Paso County, was the only lawmaker to vote no on the bill during Tuesday's committee hearing.
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