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Colo. bill would notify victims of inmate release dates

Currently, exact release dates are difficult to calculate due to good time and earned time

By C1 Staff

DENVER, Colo. — A bill that would give crime victims a better idea about when their offender would be released is being considered by the Colorado state legislature.

Currently, exact release dates are difficult to calculate due to good time and earned time, according to 9 News. The bill would have earliest release time added to the pre-sentence investigation report, a document presented to all prosecutors, defense and judges at the time of sentencing.

“I don’t think everybody’s on the same page when it comes to what good time and earned time in DOC could look like,” said Rep. Mike Foote. “I want to provide a baseline so that everybody’s working from the same page.”

Foote is the sponsor of the bill.

Testifying in support of the bill is Leanna Stoufer, who was nearly killed by her boyfriend in 2008. Stoufer was told that Michael Floyd would serve 75 percent of his 10-year sentence by those who worked at the Denver District Attorney’s Office, but later discovered that Floyd was up for parole much sooner by investigating it online.

Floyd could be out before serving 75 percent of his sentence by simply behaving in prison. He’s already been up for parole twice and is up again in June of 2015. His estimated mandatory release is May 2017.

“I figured I had at least somewhere close to 7 ½ years to [heal and figure out how to get my life back together],” she said. “I absolutely was given the wrong information, and it devastated me.”

Colo. Criminal Defense Bar policy director Maureen Cain said that the bar currently opposes the bill, but is open to “working to make it a better bill.”

“The laws we have no say it makes a difference what you do when you get to [prison]. That means we won’t be able to say a definite time. We will know eligibility dates. We will be able to predict ranges. We will be able to give written notice to victims.”

“I didn’t expect to get exact information to the day from the DA what would happen or when, but I expected to get generally correct information, and I didn’t get that,” Stoufer said.

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