Criminal justice reform bill would eliminate cash bail for petty offenses

"House Bill 1225 eliminates the option for judges to impose cash bonds for criminal defendants accused of crimes below that of a misdemeanor. It would also apply to traffic violations as long as no one was killed or injured, and the defendant was not suspected of eluding a police officer or tampering with an interlock device."

“Criminal justice is an issue that is not partisan, justice is not partisan,” said bill co-sponsor Rep. Leslie Herod, (D) Denver. “We are able to work on a lot of these issues together and I look forward to talking more about them.”

"The ACLU Colorado, which supports the bill, studied state court data and estimates at least 13,000 people a year would be released from jail as a result of this reform. Policy advisor Denise Maes explained what sort of offenses the bill would affect."

“Open container, the most common one is trespass, and you’ll see this a lot in the homeless community, you’ll also see past curfew in the park,” Maes said."

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