Violent criminals should go to prison and for significantly longer than those convicted of other crimes. If that sounds like a “duh” statement, it is a novel concept for Colorado in the era of Democrat-controlled state government.

Republicans want to make accountability fashionable again. State Rep. Mike Lynch, state Sens. Mark Baisley and Perry Will and eight other Republicans have launched HB24-1127, concerning parole eligibility for violent offenders. The bill takes the audacious position certain violent offenders serve at least 85% of their sentences. Moving the mandatory minimum served to only a 15% discount would be a massive increase compared to the current system.

There are three facts – indisputable facts – that drive the need for legislation such as 1127.

First, short of a sentence to life in prison without parole (first-degree murder), nobody on the planet knows what minimum amount of time someone will spend in prison. From the moment a convicted violent criminal is taken from the courtroom, nobody knows when they will become eligible for parole. Not the defendant, prosecutor, the victims of the defendant, the judge, not even the executive director of the Department of Corrections. There is zero “truth in sentencing” in Colorado.

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Second, our state government – currently dominated by elected Democrats and their appointees – has spent years working to lessen the amount of time violent felons spend in prison. In addition to spending the last decade removing mandatory sentences from a number of serious felonies, the Dems under the Gold Dome recently made felony murder parole eligible. They will likely try to make extreme-indifference murder parole eligible this session.

Third, despite a state statute that seems to dictate violent felons serve at least 75% of their earned sentences, they only serve around 43%. Inmates receive credit against their sentences for everything from completing an educational milestone, to simply not stabbing your cell mate. By the way, according to DOC’s Code of Penal Discipline, stabbing your cell mate can result in a loss of no more than 60 days of “good time.” Stabbing a cell mate to death can cause a loss of a whopping 90 days of “good time.”

It is also harder to revoke a convicted felon’s parole than at any other time in memory. Colorado’s recidivism rate, as reported by the Common Sense Institute, was in the top five in the U.S. From 2014 to 2021. Our Parole Board, appointed entirely by Democrat governors, has reduced its revocations resulting in a return to prison within three years of parole from 49.5% to 31%. DOC has not updated its website since 2021.

These are the policies and changes in law that have helped to facilitate our recent crime tsunami.

Our statutes list the purposes of sentencing in order. Here are the top three:

• “To punish a convicted offender by assuring the imposition of a sentence he deserves in relation to the seriousness of his offense;
• “To assure the fair and consistent treatment of all convicted offenders by eliminating unjustified disparity in sentences, providing fair warning of the nature of the sentence to be imposed, and establishing fair procedures for the imposition of sentences;
• “To prevent crime and promote respect for the law by providing an effective deterrent to others likely to commit similar offenses.”

HB 1127 merely seeks to make sure convicted murderers, armed robbers, rapists, violent kidnappers and burglars serve at least 85% of their deserved sentences without the benefit of coloring-book time or didn’t-start-a-prison-riot time. That is not only justice, it is transparent for the public, the felon and the victim the felons made.

I am writing this on the day this bill goes to hearing before a Democrat-dominated judicial committee, where it will likely suffer a fate worse than an inmate who jumps a prison guard.

Enter Michael Fields from Advance Colorado with a ballot measure we will get to vote on this November. The petition process has proven time and again to be the one method we can use to end-run a legislature far left of the Colorado it purports to represent. Our General Assembly remains focused on lessening offender accountability, while Coloradans remain determined to lessen crime and victimization.

Take note today of who voted for public safety and justice, and who voted for the violent offenders and our broken sentencing system.

George Brauchler is the former district attorney for the 18th Judicial District. He also is an Owens Early Criminal Justice Fellow at the Common Sense Institute. Follow him on Twitter(X): @GeorgeBrauchler.