By Tracy Harmon
The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.
DENVER, Colo. — A sweeping review of court orders already has led to 129 lengthened sentences for the state’s inmates. And more are expected.
Colorado Department of Corrections and Judicial Branch officials began the audit after an April 7 request by Gov. John Hickenlooper. The audit followed the March 19 murder of DOC Executive Director Tom Clements, who was shot to death by Evan Ebel. Ebel was a parolee who was released from prison early due to confusion over whether a new sentence for assault was to run at the same time or after he completed his original sentence.
“We have achieved considerable progress toward the completion of the audit,” said Alison Morgan, DOC spokeswoman. “As of Tuesday, the DOC has transferred 1,211 offender files to judicial officials for further review.”
Morgan said the audit started with a daunting stack of 8,415 files that fit the bill for mandated consecutive sentences (one after the other). Reviewers started with the inmates who are on parole or are closest to finishing their sentences.
Of those in the initial review, 3,243 inmate files progressed to a secondary review. All but about 1,000 of those files have been reviewed. Preliminary results indicate that 53 percent have cases that merit further review by the courts, Morgan said.
Of those, judicial officials have amended 129 court orders impacting 124 inmates, and 565 court orders were affirmed, Morgan said.
“All of the 129 amended orders have lengthened the sentences — sometimes it is not a significant amount of time and sometimes it is significant,” Morgan said.
Plenty of work is left to be done with the audit. Judicial officials continue to review 691 case files, and prison officials have 972 files left to review, Morgan said.
“The dedication and commitment to this project is just unbelievable. They have a process and a focus and they are making sure it is done accurately,” Morgan said.
To help make the process easier in the future, Hickenlooper signed a bill late last month that orders DOC officials to seek clarification from the courts when a defendant is sentenced to two or more terms of incarceration and the order does not clearly indicate whether the sentences are to overlap (be concurrent) or be served consecutively.
The bill calls for strict time lines and documentation of such reviews. As a result, state officials involved in the reviews have implemented an online program to process the inquiries, Morgan said.