Colorado lawmakers advanced two high‑profile measures Thursday—one reshaping how the state manages its strained prison population and another allowing Coloradans to sue federal immigration agents for alleged constitutional violations—sending both bills to Gov. Jared Polis as the legislative session enters its final stretch.

Prison population management

Senate Bill 036, sponsored by Sens. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, and Mike Weissman, D-Aurora, Assistant Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, and Rep. Yara Zokaie, D-Fort Collins, makes changes to the state’s prison population management measures.

Established in 2018, the measures are intended to reduce burdens on Colorado Department of Corrections facilities when their vacancy rates fall below 3% for 30 consecutive days.

The plan, which the governor activated for the first time last August, allows the parole board to review a list of inmates who are within 90 days of their mandatory release date or eligible for conditional release.

According to Zokaie, only 237 parole applications have been reviewed since the measures were activated nine months ago. Of those, only 29 individuals have been granted parole.

“This is a budget concern, but it’s also just a human dignity concern,” she told her colleagues on the House Floor.

Despite a budgetary shortfall of over $1 billion, the General Assembly’s Joint Budget Committee approved a nearly $100 million allocation to DOC, including funding for 940 additional prison beds. Gov. Jared Polis has also expressed interest in opening another prison, to the dismay of many lawmakers.

The JBC ultimately approved a budget placeholder that would allow DOC to contract for beds at two previously closed private prisons in Trinidad and Burlington.

“We are at a place in Colorado where we are being faced with choosing between funding prisons at the expense of health care, prisons at the expense of housing, and prisons at the expense of crucial services for kids,” Zokaie said. “We are making painful cuts this year, and at the same time, we are discussing proposals about purchasing private prisons.”

Senate Bill 036 increases the threshold for activating the prison population management measure from a 3% vacancy rate to 4% and adds additional agencies to be notified when the threshold is reached. Additionally, the measure establishes certain expectations for the parole board, requires ongoing reporting of population numbers, and establishes pathways to move individuals past their parole eligibility date out of prison and into a new setting.

“We need the Department of Corrections, the Board of Parole, and Community Corrections to better coordinate to move people who are eligible for parole out of corrections to free up the beds so we don’t have to keep paying for new ones,” said Bacon.

Senate Bill 036 passed on a 41-23 vote, with all Republicans and Democratic Rep. Bob Marshall of Highlands Ranch voting against it.

Right to sue federal agents

Senate Bill 005, also headed to the governor’s desk, would allow individuals to sue federal immigration agents for alleged constitutional violations during civil immigration enforcement actions.

The bill passed on a 20-11 party-line vote in the Senate, where it is sponsored by Sens. Mike Weissman, D-Aurora, and Julie Gonzales, D-Denver.

During House floor debate on Wednesday, sponsor Rep. Yara Zokaie, D-Fort Collins, called the bill “sort of a converse 1983,” referring to Section 1983, a federal statute that allows individuals to sue state or local government officials in federal court for constitutional violations.

“Ultimately, what this bill is about is that government officials are subject to the law and that where we have rights, we have to also have remedies,” she said. “The law has consistently affirmed that when government actors exceed their authority and infringe on individual rights, they can and should be held accountable.”

Zokaie noted several incidents in which Americans were allegedly targeted by federal immigration officials based on their accent or skin color.

“Our neighbors are living in fear because the immigration enforcement has been causing injury and death to citizens and non-citizens alike,” Zokaie said, adding that 46 individuals have died in ICE custody since 2025. “The Constitution does not mean anything if it isn’t enforceable, and that principle applies to federal actors as well.”

Rep. Carlos Barron, R-Fort Lupton, noted that the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both American citizens killed by ICE agents in Minnesota, were tragic, but that “they put themselves in a situation that was far from being safe.”

Barron alleged that “so many people” came into the country under the Biden administration; some legally, some illegally. If the bill becomes law, immigration agents may be afraid to do their jobs for fear of being sued, Barron added.

“By limiting these federal agents and having them fear of breaking this state law is allowing for actual illegal alien criminals to roam our state and our country, plotting their next attack,” he said.

The bill passed on a 41-22 party-line vote.