Far more people across Colorado are being released without a cash bond, and in La Plata County, it has given rise to a increasing number of people violating conditions of their bonds.
A recent state law encouraging judges to release people on their own personal recognizance is more fair to those who can’t afford a bond, but it also created an abundance of bond-violation cases, said 6th Judicial District Attorney Todd Risberg.
A local working group that included Risberg, judges, public defenders, pretrial services workers and others have been meeting for months to deal with the problem.
This week, the group’s participants ended the practice of filing new cases in La Plata County Court when bond conditions are violated. Instead, the offender will return to the same judge handling the initial case. That judge can tailor the bond conditions to each individual or have the person taken back to jail, Risberg said.
In many cases, those released on a personal recognizance bond have drug or alcohol-addiction problems, and those addiction issues lead to violations of conditions on their bonds.
“We can’t expect an addict to unilaterally change their behavior without help,” Risberg said.
But neither does it make sense to keep those whose only crime is using drugs in jail because they are not a public-safety threat, he said.
The court can order offenders to seek treatment as part of their bond conditions, but often judges are hesitant to do so because they have not been convicted of a crime.
La Plata County Sheriff’s Office is also making changes to provide judges with more information they can use to set bonds, said Sheriff Sean Smith.
Smith said he supports personal recognizance bonds as long as releasing the inmate does not compromise community safety, because they can help people maintain their employment. Risberg echoed this sentiment.
“We don’t want people losing their jobs if they don’t need to,” he said.
As part of the restructuring of his office, he has trained some deputies who work in the jail to also interview inmates before a bond hearing.
These bond commissioners ask about past crimes, owning a home, having a phone and other factors that help predict how likely a person is to remain in the community while out on bond.
These bond commissioners will be available on weekends when many arrests happen, and weekend availability will help eliminate the time crunch to complete interviews on Monday morning before the first bond hearing of the week, Smith said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
