Mandatory Parole In Colorado

November 5, 2008 | Denver, Colorado | Vetting explained

Posted by:
dertin

Viewed 367 times
Shared 22 times

iReport —

Normally when a crime is committed a judge sentences the offender to a certain amount of time, let say in this case 2 years. If the offender is behaved and completes programs the offender will be recommended for Parole, which would mean he gets out of Prison after a year in and then serve his last year on Parole. In Colorado it doesn't work this way, when sentenced to the 2 years the offender MUST serve his entire sentence, the entire 2 years, then upon release the offender is then put on parole for 1-5 years even after serving all their time. This is double jeopardy yet the state of Colorado gets away with it. Another crime they have managed to mangle, is "Washington DC" told Colorado they can not build any more prisons, they keep building them because their primary income comes from prison which means Mandatory Parole effects ALL of America, we pay taxes to CO for this program that no one else does. When they were told to stop building new prisons they decided to renovate an old building in to a prison ... which as you can see they didn't break the law they altered it to fit what they wanted. WHY IS COLORADO GETTING AWAY WITH THESE CRIMES??? Why are our federal dollars being invested in these programs for prisons in Colorado that do not work???? We want to end Mandatory Parole in Colorado. It has been a dismal failure since it's inception and does nothing to prevent crime. It's a huge money hog and the money being spent on mandatory parole would be better spent on mental health, drug and alcohol counseling and assisting former offenders to start their lives over again. Colorado's parolee recidivism rate is almost 70%. There has been nothing done to help offenders rehabilitate in prison, in fact all programs both professional and religious have been cut in order to spend money on new prisons. Loved ones and family members pay financial support for offenders both in and out of prison and are being used to finance the entire state prison system. The Colorado taxpayers are also being financially lied to about where their tax dollars are going. Families pay for everything except food and the buildings through exorbitant canteen services, telephone fees and JPay fees. In short, the families and loved ones of offenders are paying for everything except beds and food and the taxpayers are paying for new prisons instead of rehabilitation. The parole system here in Colorado is setting offenders up to fail. Parole officers look for every way they can to violate a parolee, including making up violations. Mandatory parole does not work, it has been proven over and over again. Parole is a system set up to find and cause failure. The money being spent on mandatory parole would be better spent on hiring people who have degrees in social work and counseling. Mandatory parole effectively extends prison sentences from 1 - 5 years. Although courts have disagreed that this is double jeopardy, it is a prison sentence just the same, it just doesn't have bars. 3 minutes of your time can make life a bit better for tax payers and for a lot of families. Please help us make a difference. Click on the link below and help us, help others. _ http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/end-mandatory-parole-in-colorado-now _

Tags:
ireport_for_cnn

Posted in Assignment:
iReport for CNN

Share this on:

del.icio.us

StumbleUpon

Comments

iReport welcomes a lively discussion, so comments on iReports are not pre-screened before they post. See the iReport community guidelines for details about content that is not welcome on iReport.

What is iReport?

Share

Tell a story, offer an opinion, say what's important to you.
Discuss

Join the conversation on the day's big issues.
Be heard

The best iReports get vetted and used on CNN platforms.

iReport is a user-generated section of CNN.com. The stories here come from users. CNN has vetted only the stories marked with the "CNN" badge. MORE...

CNN iReport