New Colorado law changes parole eligibility age - KKCO
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) -Juveniles Convicted as Adults Program (JCAP) was first implemented in 2016, but in 2021, state lawmakers passed a bill that would change the age of eligibility that the program would apply to.
The original program applied for juvenile offenders who were tried as adults could apply for early parole after serving 20 or 30 years, depending on conviction as long as they committed their crime when they were younger than 18-years-old. Then in 2021, HB21-1209 passed, which changes the eligibility age to 21-years-old.
One of the bill’s sponsors argued that science shows that the brain isn’t fully developed until 25 or 26 years-old and trauma that someone could have endured as a child or adolescent could have stifled development.
District Attorney, Dan Rubinstein said the JCAP program was originally designed to help juveniles who may have spent a major part of their adult lives behind bars. The program includes an intense five-year program to help offenders as they transition back into society.
“All and all I’d say that’s a good thing,” said Rubinstein. “I mean, a lot of these people for example, if you were just over 18 at the time you commit your crime, you never really lived as an adult outside of prison so your entire experience as an adult, you missed how to balance a checkbook or go grocery shopping or do any of the things that young adults learn to do.”
As for what we’re seeing here in Mesa County, Rubinstein says so far, there have been no cases where someone has utilized the program. But there are case that are going through the judicial system right now, that Rubinstein says could be affected by the program. One of them being Brian Cohee, who’s accused of the murder and decapitation of 69-year-old Warren Barnes.
“It hasn’t affected any of our current cases. We haven’t seen anybody that we have sent to prison that was 18 or 21 at the time of their crime that has now applied to the program,” said Rubinstein. “But we do have a couple of cases going through the office now, where the person is charged with first-degree murder and if we were to plead them to something other than first-degree murder, they would be eligible for this program. They’re still pending cases, they’re still set for trial and the discussion about whether to offer them any sort of plea agreement and what that plea agreement should be is impacted by this legislation.”
Rubinstein says it’s very restricted about who will be eligible for the JCAP and at this point, it’s still too new to really fully understand what kind of impact the changes will have. But the age change doesn’t come without it’s controversy.
“It’s certainly controversial. The argument in favor of it, is the brain isn’t fully developed until somewhere between ages 25 and 28. But we’re talking about people who have been convicted of murder and I think you could ask any 13 or 14-year-old whether or not murder was okay and they’ll tell you no. So you don’t have to have a fully developed brain to understand that wrongfulness of that level of conduct.”
Rubinstein said the biggest impact his office is feeling from the legislation is trying to make sure victims and their families understand what the potential outcomes could be.
“One of the things that really drives plea agreements for the most part, is people want certainty,” said Rubinstein. ”In this system that we have, there’s very little certainty.”
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source: https://www.nbc11news.com/2022/04/20/new-colorado-law-changes-parole-eligibility-age/
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