Colorado bill protecting young kids from criminal charges passes committee after Democratic leadership swaps out member

A tense, marathon debate unfolded at the state Capitol this week over a bill that would prevent any criminal charges against kids, who are 12 years old and under, unless they are charged with killing someone. Instead, the kids would be referred to treatment.

The Senate Judiciary Committee was expected to kill the bill, but at the last minute, Democratic leadership pulled a committee member, who opposed it and replaced him with one of the bill's sponsors, which set the stage for an emotional six-hour debate.

State Sen. James Coleman says his bill is about preventing a revolving door of crime for kids.

"Our current system is penalizing and traumatizing already penalized and traumatized kids," he said. 

State Sen. Cleave Simpson, co-sponsor of the bill, says kids often enter the system because of minor offenses.

"Issues like a schoolyard fight, tapping a peer on the bottom with a tennis racket or stealing a book from the library, all real life examples, where kids have been taken to court," he said. 

Jessica Dotter, Sexual Assault Prosecutor with the Colorado District Attorneys Council, says that's not been her experience. 

"As a prosecutor who worked these crimes for my career these are not bra-snapping cases or tennis rackets hitting butts," Dotter said. 

The District Attorneys' Council and Colorado Chiefs of Police unanimously oppose the bill they say would increase crime.

"They're going to become a target for the manipulation... they're going to become a target for older folks. And they're going to become a target, quite honestly, for some criminal organizations that will absolutely utilize this loophole in the law,"  Interim Aurora Police Chief Art Acevedo said. 

But Coleman says the bill doesn't protect criminals who use kids, rather it ensures kids receive treatment not punishment. 

Instead of arresting them, police would refer them to so-called Collaborative Management Programs - or CMPs - run by county human services. 

They would be charged with developing and enforcing community-based treatment plans. The District Attorneys' Council says most perpetrators 12 and under are already referred to treatment. 

Over the last 10 years it says, nearly 2,500 kids ages 10 to 12 have been charged with violent or sex crimes and only four have been sentenced to youth corrections. 

Weld County District Attorney, Michael Rourke, says all the bill does is remove the ability to enforce treatment.

"This bill seeks to reform a system that is working for 10 to 12 year olds," he said. 

Under the bill, the only option counties would have if kids refused treatment is to remove them from their homes.

Gail Ryan, who worked for decades at the Kempe Center for Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse, says kids and parents are far more likely to comply with treatment plans if they don't fear arrest and punishment.

"Engaging kids and families with early intervention is better done by aligning with them rather than creating an adversarial relationship," Ryan said. 

Coleman says the current system also doesn't address account for outside factors like poverty and family dysfunction that influence young kids behavior.

"It would be inhumane for us not to act if there is a better way," Coleman said. 

Crime victims were divided on the bill. Leona Thurston, a sex assault survivor and family and victims support specialist in Routt County, says the bill would make victims more likely to come forward.

"The system as designed causes shame, guilt, hopelessness and grief," Thurston said. 

Others, including a mom who says her daughter was raped by a 12-year-old, say the bill would teach kids there's no consequences to their actions.

"It teaches them that they can rape another individual and have zero repercussions," Thurston said. 

Tom Raynes, executive director of the District Attorneys' Council, says the bill should have been vetted by the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice - a nonpartisan group made-up of all stakeholders in the justice system.

He says bill sponsors may have good intentions but the bill will have unintended consequences.

"There will be no 'I didn't know. I didn't expect this to happen.' Everybody is on notice. There will be no hiding from this. This is not good policy right now," Raynes said. 

Prosecutors are also concerned there's no due process for kids, who may be innocent and they worry - if kids are immune from prosecution - law enforcement won't even investigate when they are involved in criminal behavior.  

Colorado Counties, which fund human services, also oppose the bill. It says the Collaborative Management Programs, which some counties haven't even developed, are already over-whelmed and under-funded and they say the money included in the bill - $1.5 million - doesn't go nearly far enough. 

Senator Coleman disagreed saying the bill doesn't ask counties to do any more than they're already required to do.

It has already passed the House and passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 3-2 vote and the Appropriations Committee 4-3 (on Friday morning) and is scheduled to go to the Senate floor on Monday.