In what seems to be part of a somewhat encouraging trend of reducing the criminal penalties for minor offenses, the legislature is looking at proposals to drop a variety of drug offenses from felonies to misdemeanors. As it stands, this is framed as a much needed attempt to reduce prison expenditures in Colorado which have grown out of control:
Colorado lawmakers are proposing reduced penalties for some drug possession offenses in a move that supporters say is aimed at ensuring offenders get treatment instead of long prison sentences.
The bill introduced in the Senate Tuesday would drop some offenses from felonies to misdemeanors and represents another attempt by lawmakers to decrease the prison population and cut expenses in the Department of Corrections.
This is a good step in the right direction, especially considering the devastating human costs and limited benefits of lengthy penalties for drug offenses. This sort of bill should slant the penal system in a more rehabilitative direction, which would be good.
The other benefit of something like this is it slants the procedural aspects of the criminal case away from the prosecution to a greater extent. When the threat of a conviction for a relatively minor drug offense is five or more years in jail, taking the case to trial doesn’t sound particularly enticing. That’s made worse by the massive discrepancy between the plea offers and the maximum sentences at trial. Sometimes a plea can result in mere probation (and you can get your record sealed for certain drug offenses) while a conviction at trial can result in a multi-year prison sentence with no chance at a record-sealing.
So this is a win-win. Reducing the sentences will not only reduce the amount of people in prison, it will also increase the ability of defendants to exercise their rights to a trial without the threat of a massive sentence in the event of a conviction.
Colorado Prisons Blog 
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