Colorado Sentencing Laws are among the most confusing in the country. In making a decision to take a case all the way to trial or to resolve it through negotiations, understanding the length of a sentence requires a thorough examination of the relevant sentencing laws at play. This article — written by Colorado Attorney Philip Cherner — a personal friend and an excellent Colorado Criminal Defense Lawyer — explains — in simple understandable terms — how the sentencing system operates.
In Colorado. Colorado, like many other states in the US have called for accuracy in public sentencing. The reason? While the headlines read Smith sentenced to 10 years in prison, the truth is much more complicated. Thus, the sentenced term and the actual time served are not necessarily the same.
Parole decisions and complications about when an inmate will become eligible for parole make it difficult to know what portion of an imposed sentence a defendant will serve. Familiarity with the factors that drive these uncertainties and an analysis of release statistics might be edifying for judges, lawyers, defendants, and victims.
This article reviews factors and statistics for felony and misdemeanor cases and generally discusses sentencing in Colorado. Inmates may not be released on parole until they reach their parole eligibility date PED. The general rule of time computation is that a felony defendant will be eligible to meet the parole board for parole release consideration after serving 50 percent of the sentence, less earned time not to exceed 30 percent of the sentence and presentence confinement credit.
(mh=ntpFtUxiFkOeLGUl)5.jpg "Babes in Pueblo")
Presentence confinement credit is the amount of time the defendant spent in custody awaiting sentencing. It includes time spent in jail and in residential community corrections before the prison sentence was imposed. This rule of time computation is a general rule because there are a number of crimes where this no longer applies.
