Attorney General Phil Weiser testified in support on Monday of a bill that would create a pretrial release screening process in each judicial district in a way that minimizes race, ethnicity or gender bias, and lessens dependence on cash bail.

“The main purpose of our bail system is both simple and limited – ensuring defendants appear in court and protecting public safety while defendants await their trial,” Weiser wrote in remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Cash bail requirements shouldn’t be permitted to serve as a revenue generator, an ineffective alternative for individualized judgments as to whether a person is a risk (to society or to flee), or, worst of all, an instrument of criminalizing poverty.”

The proposal, Senate Bill 161, would create a presumption that an individual would be released pending trial without any monetary conditions. Weiser asserted that the current system of cash bail produces more crime than a risk-assessment model would, and pointed to the lost income of someone unable to bond out of jail and the disparate outcomes afforded those in the justice system based on ability to pay.

“In many parts of our state, relying on ability to pay to determine pre-trial detention is a shortcut borne of a lack of resources,” he continued. “Some counties with lower incomes lack resources to support the necessary risk-assessment to allow persons out of jail before their trial.”

Weiser requested that the legislature provide funding for the pretrial screening services to localities. His fiscal year 2020 budget request included $6.5 million for the program.

The bill’s sponsors are Democratic Sen. Pete Lee and Republican Sen. Bob Gardner, both of Colorado Springs; Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver; and Rep. Matt Soper, R-Delta. It passed the committee on a vote of 4-1, with Sen. John Cooke, R-Greeley, voting no.