2026
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HB26-1039: Adding Municipal Jails to County Jail Oversight Requirements
STATUS: Support, passed House & Senate.
HB26-1039 adds municipal jails to pre-existing jail standards that ensure people incarcerated pretrial are treated with dignity and basic standards of care. This bill closes a critical gap in the justice system by bringing city-run jails under the same reporting and safety mandates as county jails.
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HB26-1134: Municipal Court Fairness and Transparency
STATUS: Support, passed House & Senate.
HB26-1134 ensures that people charged in municipal court are provided with the same basic rights as people charged in state court. Under this bill, municipal courts must appoint counsel, livestream proceedings, and create reliable court records when people face jail time.
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SB26-036: Prison Population Management Measures
STATUS: Support, introduced. ⏳
SB26-036 strengthens Colorado’s existing prison population management law to ensure the Department of Corrections takes timely action to manage prison populations before overcrowding escalates into a crisis. Without this practical, preventative action to release and transition certain people, Colorado prisons will reach unsafe capacities.
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SB26-097: Decriminalize Adult Commercial Sexual Activity
STATUS: Supported, but lost in House Judiciary Committee.❌
SB26-097 decriminalizes commercial sexual activity among consenting adults. It repeals the state crime of prostitution and soliciting for prostitution, as well as other related offenses. Criminalizing sex work pushes vulnerable workers underground, exposing them to more risk for violence, exploitation, and adverse health outcomes.
2025
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SB25-044: Increase Synthetic Opiates Criminal Penalties
STATUS: Postponed indefinitely on 2/10/25 in Senate Judiciary.🔥
HB25-044 would have increased penalties for people with substance use disorder and those who use drugs. It would have continued the failed policies of the war on drugs, felonizing anyone who shares any amount of drugs containing fentanyl, regardless of whether they knew the substance contained fentanyl.
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HB25-1008: Complementary Behavioral Health Services in Jails
STATUS: Passed House Judiciary Committee, never heard by Appropriations Committee. ✅
HB25-1008 would allocate state money to train jail staff and provide behavioral health services to people incarcerated in Colorado’s jails. With the limited resources available, Colorado should make truly meaningful investments in community-based care instead of continuing to rely on the criminal legal system as the primary route to treatment and services for behavioral health conditions.
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HB25-1147: Municipal Court Fairness & Transparency
STATUS: Supported and passed House & Senate, but vetoed by Gov. Polis. ❌
HB25-1147 provides fundamental legal protections that are already guaranteed in state courts to Coloradans prosecuted in municipal courts. Colorado’s municipal courts criminalize our neighbors with substance use disorder and other behavioral and mental health conditions because they prosecute poverty-based offenses. Long sentences and a lack of attorneys in these courts only creates more barriers for Coloradans seeking treatment or housing.
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SB25-043: Deflections Support Justice-Involved Youth
STATUS: Supported but lost, never heard by Senate Appropriations Committee. ❌
SB25-043 strengthens existing programs that divert Colorado children away from the criminal legal and juvenile delinquency systems. It also allocates up to $10 million over three years to support community service providers who serve children in culturally responsive and trauma-informed ways without relying on detention or criminalization.
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