10/29/2015
Denver - The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado today launched Mobile Justice Colorado, a new police accountability tool that empowers Coloradans to witness and record police interactions and to submit cell phone videos of civil rights abuses directly to the ACLU of Colorado, so they cannot be deleted or destroyed.
Mobile Justice CO is available in English and Spanish for use on Android and iOS phones and can be downloaded for free through Apple’s App Store or Google Play. The app, which was officially launched this morning at an event in front of the Denver Police Headquarters, enables users to record, witness, and report interactions with law enforcement, and also includes a built-in “Know Your Rights” guide.
“Several recent high-profile cases in Colorado and throughout the country have demonstrated the critical role that cell phone video recordings can play in holding law enforcement accountable for their actions,” said ACLU of Colorado Executive Director Nathan Woodliff-Stanley. “Recording police is a fundamental right, and we encourage everyone to use it.”
The functions of the app include:

• Record– empowers users to record their interactions with law enforcement in audio and video files that are automatically sent to the ACLU of Colorado, so that they cannot be deleted or destroyed.
• Witness– alerts nearby Mobile Justice Colorado users when another user is stopped by police, so that they can move toward the location and document the interaction.
• Report– gives users the option to provide a more-detailed account of their interactions with police in an incident report, which will be transmitted directly to the ACLU of Colorado.
• Rights– provides an overview of individual rights and how to protect them when recording or interacting with law enforcement officers.

The ACLU of Colorado recently won dismissal of criminal obstruction charges against Ryan Brown, an African American man who recorded a traffic stop by Colorado Springs police in which officers pulled him from the vehicle at gunpoint, threw him to the ground, searched him, and cuffed him without identifying the reason for the stop, which turned out to be a cracked windshield. While dragging him to the ground, officers took Brown’s phone, turned off the video, and threw it in the snow. Brown’s recording of the stop drew national attention and accumulated over 155,000 views on Youtube.
“Internal affairs documents revealed that the officer who shoved Ryan Brown’s face in the snow didn’t recall his own actions until he saw them later on the cell phone recording,” said ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein. “Were it not for Ryan’s recording, which could have easily been destroyed, the officer’s recollection of the events might have gone unchallenged, and the truth might never have been discovered.”
In the 2015 legislative session, the ACLU of Colorado supported HB 1290, the first legislation in the country to affirmatively declare a right to record police officers.  The bill passed both chambers of the Colorado legislature and was signed into law by the Governor.
“Government and law enforcement surveillance is constantly expanding,” said ACLU of Colorado Public Policy Director Denise Maes. “Mobile Justice Colorado gives people the power to turn the cameras around on their government and law enforcement and to hold them accountable for abuses and rights violations.”
Learn more about Mobile Justice Colorado and download the app from the ACLU of Colorado’s website at https://aclu-co.org/know-your-rights/mobilejustice/.
Download from the App Store at: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1031612987

Download from Google Play at: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.aclu.mobile.justice.co

DENVER – The Colorado Springs Municipal Court is routinely violating the United States Constitution and state law by jailing hundreds of people because they are too poor to pay court-ordered fines and fees, according to an ACLU letter sent to the City Attorney and the Municipal Court this morning.

An ACLU investigation uncovered more than 800 times since January 2014 where the Court imposed a fine for a violation of a municipal ordinance and then converted the fine into what court documents label a “pay or serve” sentence.  A “pay or serve” sentence orders a defendant to either pay the amount due or serve time in jail at a rate of $50 a day.  These sentences resulted in hundreds of impoverished people spending days, weeks, and even months in jail in direct violation of 40 years of U.S. Supreme Court precedent, as well as a 2014 state law banning debtors' prison practices.

“As the Supreme Court clearly explained more than forty years ago, the Constitution prohibits imposing a fine as a sentence and then converting it into a jail term solely because the defendant has no money and cannot pay,” said Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director.  “Yet, in hundreds of cases since January 2014, the Colorado Springs Municipal Court has done just that by sentencing poor people to jail to pay off their fines at a rate of $50 a day.”

In 75% of the “pay or serve” sentences, defendants were jailed for non-jailable offenses - violations that the Colorado Springs Municipal Code identifies as punishable by only a fine and never by jail. For example, solicitation near streets or highways and violations of park curfew are non-jailable offenses punishable by, at most, a $500 fine. Yet, since January 2014, the Colorado Springs Municipal Court has imposed over 200 “pay or serve” sentences for violation of the solicitation ordinance, and over 65 “pay or serve” sentences for park hours violations.

“For penniless defendants, pay or serve is not a choice; it is a sentence to jail,” Silverstein said.  “When the City’s ordinance provides that a fine is the appropriate penalty, the Constitution forbids jailing a person solely because he is too poor to pay.  Debtors’ prisons were outlawed in this country long ago, but they are alive and well in Colorado Springs.”

In some cases, the Court imposed multiple consecutive jail sentences on defendants who had more than one non-jailable citation.  In one case highlighted by the ACLU, a 45-year-old homeless man was imprisoned for more than 90 days for panhandling, an offense for which the maximum punishment is a $500 fine, not jail.  The ACLU noted that each of this man’s multiple citations shows that he was merely displaying a sign inviting donations, conduct that does not violate the panhandling ordinance.  Nevertheless, the man served 26 consecutive “pay or serve” sentences, ranging from 1 to 10 days, in jail at a total cost to the taxpayer of more than $5,000.

“Incarcerating the poor for their inability to pay creates a two-tiered system of justice in which the poorest defendants are punished more harshly than the ones with means. Defendants who can write a check move on with their lives. Those unable to pay are imprisoned,” said ACLU of Colorado Staff Attorney Rebecca T. Wallace.  “In a system committed to equal justice for all, accountability cannot mean that people of means pay fines, while the poor go to jail.”

In 2014, in response to an earlier ACLU investigation, the Colorado legislature overwhelmingly passed HB 14-1061, which mandates specific due process protections to prevent courts from jailing individuals who cannot pay court fines and fees.  The ACLU’s letter today asserts that Colorado Springs is violating the Colorado statute as well as the Constitution.

The ACLU of Colorado is calling on Colorado Springs to immediately stop jailing people because they are too poor to pay their fines or court fees, and to provide compensation to individuals who were jailed because of their poverty.

more on this case

October 21, 2015

DENVER – As Mayor Michael Hancock prepares to present his 2016 city budget, several of Denver’s leading criminal justice reform organizations submitted a joint letter to City Council questioning the$24 million increase in the Denver Sheriff Department’s budget.
The coalition includes ACLU of Colorado, Colorado Latino Forum, Drug Policy Alliance, Criminal Defense Institute, Colorado Justice Reform Coalition and Colorado Defense Bar.
The letter outlines several concerns:

• In 2005, Denver voters were asked to support a massive bond measure to expand the jails. Voters were told that no new staff at the Sheriff’s Department would be needed due to greater efficiency.
• It is unclear whether the $24million increase reflects the total cost of the consultant’s recommendations.
• There has been no concerted effort in Denver to reduce the jail population either before or simultaneously to this budget increase, nor does the budget address the issue of overrepresentation of people of color in jail.
• Over 50% of people are incarcerated because they do not have the money to post bond. This is despite a US Dept. of Justice opinion that says that the overreliance of money bonds without consideration of indigence violates the 14^th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
• There is also no consideration in the Sheriff’s budget request to improve and expand access to programs and services for people in jail or policies that expand pre-arrest diversion for low-level offenses to prevent jail at the onset.

The coalition notes that this week, over 100 police chiefs and government prosecutors are meeting at the White House to address ways to reduce incarceration rates. We think Denver’s city leaders should also work to reverse mass incarceration and repair the harm caused, particularly in communities of color.  We ask Denver to follow the example of other government entities in Colorado who have used the “power of the purse” to chart a new course.
“A public budget is a moral document that is supposed to reflect the values and priorities of the community.  For the undersigned organizations, this proposed $24 million budget increase neither aligns with our values or our priorities,” said Denise Maes, Public Policy Director for the ACLU of Colorado.
The reform organizations urge the Council not to approve this $24 million increase without the following caveats:
1) the Denver Sheriff’s Department will provide City Council and the public its projections for future costs beyond the $24 million currently requested to implement the consultant’s recommendations
2) the Council should immediately create a committee that includes community representatives with experience in criminal justice reform that is tasked with making recommendations on how to reduce the jail population and strengthen inmate programs.
The Denver City Council will hold a public hearing on the 2016 Budget on Monday, October 26^th.   Representatives from several of the signatory organizations will present testimony.
The joint letter to City Council is available here.