Criminal Sentencing and Punishment

Harley Lappin: Private prison industry woos another top public official

​There are two revolving doors in every prison system. One is for the inmates, many of whom fail on parole and keep coming back. The other is reserved for top administrators who, even amid scandal, move easily from high-powered positions of public trust to high-paid jobs in the private prison ... More >>

Scott Howard: Prison rape survivor's story going international

Scott Howard​The story of Scott Howard, who endured extortion and rape by an inmate gang in Colorado's prison system, was told in detail for the first time in my feature "The Devil's Playground" three months ago. But our account quickly went viral -- and Howard, now free to speak out about pri ... More >>

Senate Bill 241: Is Colorado ready to fix parole's revolving door?

​Over the years, we've written frequently about the breakdowns in Colorado's parole system -- how heaping mandatory parole on top of prison sentences and making ill-prepared felons jump through multiple hoops drives up prison costs. Now there finally seems to be some serious efforts among lawm ... More >>

Colorado Juvenile Equal Protection Act: Should terms be lowered for 48 lifers busted as juvies?

Claire Levy.​Although Representative Claire Levy has gotten plenty of attention for her sponsorship of THC driving limits, and her change of heart over the best possible standard, she's equally passionate about the Colorado Juvenile Equal Protection Act, which is slated to go before the judici ... More >>

Shun Birch found guilty of murdering a witness; co-defendant Willie Clark's trial date not yet set

Shun Birch.​ A second man, 29-year-old Shun Birch, has been convicted of murdering a witness named Kalonniann Clark in 2006. He was one of three men charged with Clark's killing -- and perhaps the least known. Reputed gang leader Brian Hicks was found guilty at a trial last month. Willie Clark ... More >>

12-year-old accused of killing parents to become youngest Coloradan tried as adult for murder?

Big pic below.​A petition has been filed in juvenile court regarding a 12-year-old from Burlington suspected of killing his parents, Charles and Marilyn Long, and wounding two siblings. But prosecutor Robert Watson still hasn't decided whether to ask for a transfer to adult court. If he does, ... More >>

Mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement: New bill seeks to stop the madness

​Roughly four out of every ten prisoners in solitary confinement in Colorado is either developmentally disabled or mentally ill, a figure that's been rising steadily over the past decade. Senate Bill 176, headed for a statehouse committee review later this week, seeks to drastically reduce tha ... More >>

Letters: The Flagstaff House helped me propose to my wife

Tom Clements, new Colorado prison chief: Can he bust out of the state's revolving door?

Tom Clements.​This week, the Colorado Senate unanimously confirmed the appointment of Tom Clements as Department of Corrections executive director. It's not one of the most glamorous posts in Governor John Hickenlooper's cabinet, certainly, but it's one of the most crucial if the state is goin ... More >>

Brian Hicks found guilty of hiring Willie Clark, another man to kill witness Kalonniann Clark

Brian Hicks.​ Brian Hicks, the reputed leader of the Tre Tre Crips gang, has been convicted of soliciting two men to kill a witness named Kalonniann Clark. The 28-year-old Clark was killed on December 6, 2006 -- just a week before she was scheduled to testify that Hicks tried to shoot her in 2 ... More >>

Raped and extorted by a prison gang, Scott Howard was called a "drama queen" by corrections officials

Scott Howard: Inmate's history of obtaining bogus refunds tip of prison-tax-fraud iceberg

​This week's cover story, "The Devil's Playground," recounts the ordeal of Scott Howard, a Colorado inmate extorted and sexually assaulted by the 211 Crew prison gang. But it's also about Howard's history of obtaining bogus tax refunds while behind bars, a talent the gang was eager to exploit. ... More >>

Timothy Gonzales, who moved into man's house and boxer shorts, also sentenced for sex assaults

Big pics below.​Timothy Gonzales made news in November 2009 after being found in a guy's house wearing the owner's boxer shorts -- hahahahahaha! So why the holy hell was he sentenced this week to 28 years in prison? For some very good reasons -- including sexually assaulting two teenagers.

Marijuana grower Chris Bartkowicz sentenced to five years

Bartkowicz.​This morning, Highlands Ranch's Chris Bartkowicz was sentenced to five years in prison, to be followed by eight years on supervised probation, for federal marijuana cultivation charges. Bartkowicz will also undergo mandatory drug and mental health programs

Daryll Brown gets life for hitting ex-wife Alisha Brown with wine bottle, strangling her to death

Big pics below.​On December 30, 2009, Alisha Brown was found murdered in the Sixth Avenue West subdivision. The following February, her ex-husband, Daryll Glenn Brown was arrested for her death. Now, Brown has been convicted and sentenced to life without parole for a crime involving a sneak a ... More >>

Ronald Eugene Beach gets 20 years for abusing granddaughters, ages 3 and 5, at Fort Carson

​Ronald Eugene Beach, 63, has been sentenced to twenty years in federal prison for sexual abuse of minors, and the stipulated facts included in his plea agreement on view below certainly present a strong, and disturbing, case for the sentence's length. The targets? His own granddaughters, who ... More >>

Jerry Gallegos: 6-year jolt for cop impersonator who couldn't start car he tried to steal

Large photo below.​On the surface, it seems like a perfect scam. Approach a stopped vehicle, flash a bogus police badge, confiscate the driver's keys and wallet, then hop into the car and drive off. But what happens if the car won't start? For Jerry John Gallegos, the answer to that question ... More >>

Top Ten musical jailbirds: In honor of Lil Wayne and T.I. and their respective prison stints

​Earlier this morning, Lil Wayne was released from New York's Rikers Island after serving eight months of a one-year sentence for criminal possession of a weapon. Fellow Southern rapper T.I., meanwhile, went back to jail on Monday after a federal judge in Atlanta revoked his probation follow ... More >>

Prison advice about snitching, shanks and pretending that man with makeup is a woman

​Here at the Criminal Affairs Desk, we get letters from inmates. Boy, do we get letters. But one recent missive from a Colorado prisoner offers some of the best advice we've ever heard for negotiating a long stretch in the state prison system. Such as: Don't ask, don't snitch. Keep an eye out ... More >>

Chris Bartkowicz: Marijuana community to rally at courthouse for grower facing 60 years in jail

Chris Bartkowicz.​As we noted in a September 10 post, the February arrest of Highlands Ranch marijuana grower Chris Bartkowicz, as well as his subsequent indictment, has been a rallying point for local medical-marijuana activists. That will literally be true tomorrow, when members of major MMJ ... More >>

Kristen Stillman survived unspeakable horrors of abuse -- and the nightmare isn't over

Kristen Stillman.​What happened to eight-year-old Kristen Stillman and her twin brother after their mother left them in northwest Denver was unspeakable. And after a few frustrating attempts to tell adults of the abuse, Kristen quit trying. A prisoner, she stayed silent through four pregnancie ... More >>

Darrell Havens: Car thief paralyzed by Arvada police shooting in standoff over parole deal

Darrell Havens.​In June, I wrote about Darrell Havens, the paralyzed car thief whose medical parole was canceled after Arvada police chief Don Wick complained. A month later, the situation appears no closer to a resolution.

Paralyzed in a police shooting, Darrell Havens is paying a terrible price for his crimes. So are taxpayers.

Solitary-confinement report conclusions outrage prison activists

Colorado's supermax is so much fun the state is opening a second one. ​The release of a twelve-month study about the mental effects of solitary confinement at Colorado's supermax is still weeks away. But preliminary results leaked from the report -- which suggest state prisoners suffer little ... More >>

Bill Ritter's baby steps toward prison reform

The pen is mightier than the pen: Governor Bill Ritter signs a drug sentencing reform bill. ​After the embarrasing political scrum over the sex offender bill that prompted Governor Bill Ritter to veto the mess last week, it's easy to overlook the fact that something was actually accomplished o ... More >>

Stan Garnett tries to capitalize on AG John Suthers's link to serial killer Scott Lee Kimball

Stan Garnett's playing hardball.​In an April post announcing his intention to challenge Colorado Attorney General John Suthers at the polls this November, Boulder district attorney Stan Garnett focused on issues like watching out for consumers, championing the environment and crafting a workab ... More >>

Operation Cock Block tries to protect women's hearts and pocketbooks from this crooked Casanova

Racial-attack suspects: Hearings, sentencings and Allen Ford's not guilty plea

Media reports have connected Allen Ford to Andrew Gelston Graham's murder.​Last week, we told you about reports again linking suspects in a series of racial attacks to the thus-far-unsolved murder of Andrew Gelston Graham. Among those mentioned as being part of a group that allegedly trailed ... More >>

Alan Sudduth learned young that you never snitch -- but now, only the truth can set him free

Children behind bars: Why Colorado is trigger-happy when it comes to sentencing kids like Alan Sudduth as adults

Alan Sudduth was sixteen years old when prosecutors charged him as an adult.​Our cover story this week recounts the tale of Alan Sudduth, a juvenile who was sentenced to seventy years in prison in 1996 for the murder of a cab driver -- even though a recent hearing showed that the prosecution's ... More >>

Van Thien Pham and the bottle of Corona he sold that may send him to jail

Van Thien Pham shoulda checked if 7-Eleven had any openings.​The sale of beer to an underage buyer doesn't usually make headlines. But in the case of Van Thien Pham, they're understandable. Back in 2007, according to the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office, Pham sold liquor to an unde ... More >>

Darrell Havens: State yanks parole for paralyzed thief after cops complain

Without a special parole, medical care for Darrell Havens could cost the state more than $2 million before he's eligible for release.​A 22-year-old convicted car thief, left a quadraplegic by police gunfire and now costing the state prison system $200,000 a year for his care, was recently gran ... More >>

Dan Tang, Operation Fortune Cookie prime suspect, sentenced to eighteen months

Dan Tang is facing 18 months in prison.​This afternoon, Chief U.S. District Judge Wiley Y. Daniel sentenced prominent Thornton restaurant owner Dan Tang to eighteen months in prison for his part in the largest marijuana bust in state history -- more than the probation requested by his lawyers, ... More >>

The evidence that put Willie Clark away

Thomas Silverstein: After 26 years in solitary, "Terrible Tommy" wins a round in court

Thomas Silverstein at Atlanta's penitentiary (inset) in the 1980s and at ADX in 2007.​When you've spent your time since the early days of the Reagan years in a cell smaller than some people's closets, progress tends to get measured in small, small increments rather than sweeping events. But T ... More >>

Supermax showdown: Don't confuse us with facts

"We were lucky that day": Colorado Department of Corrections Sgt. Bill Nelson describes responding to a 2007 inmate attack on Limon staffer Pam Kahanic (left).​At first glance, the idea of tapping into the badly stretched state budget for a few million to open one wing of a new supermax prison ... More >>

John Johnson, still lost in the system: Counting the years of his never-ending parole

John Johnson's now in the tenth year of what began as a four-year sentence.​Four years ago, in a feature called "Over and Over Again," I reported on the staggering number of nonviolent offenders stuck in Colorado's revolving-door version of parole -- and costing the state millions of dollars. ... More >>

Last of Holly Square Shopping Center arsonists sentenced

Deangelo Calaway: Didn't anyone tell you not to play with matches?​Back in May 2008, a group of nine people, including Deangelo Calaway and Mitchell Walker, were upset by an incident that took place at Bash nightclub, not to mention the murder the day before of Michael Asberry, a 2007 Westword ... More >>

Will throwing more money at the prison system reduce inmate violence?

​Recent Denver Post stories about increasing inmate violence at some state prisons have arrived just in time for the annual budget battle between lawmakers and the Colorado Department of Corrections -- a nice bit of timing that should be regarded with a certain wariness. The DOC would like t ... More >>

New website shines light on dark corners of the prison system

What goes on beyond the fence? Solitary Watch wants to know.​Get in serious trouble, go to prison. Get into some bad shit inside prison -- attacking staff, running heroin, or maybe somebody doesn't like your gang tattoo -- and you go to the hole, also known as solitary confinement or (in priso ... More >>

Child-sex offender suspected of trying to recruit new prospects from jail

Gino Rael -- keeping the postal service busy in a disturbing way.​Gino Rael, 26, is a registered sex offender who received a four-year deferred sentence in 2006 for enticing a child. So what did he allegedly do while in Boulder County Jail this summer on unrelated charges? Sent letters to youn ... More >>

Three things not to be: A prison guard, pregnant and charged with rape

"Inappropriate? Moi?"​Corrections officers aren't supposed to brutalize the inmates in their custody, but they're not encouraged to be too fond of them, either. The system frowns on "inappropriate relationships" between staff and prisoners -- and such dangerous sexual liaisons tend to lead to ... More >>

This one-man crime wave is going a hundred miles down a dead-end street

Immigrant hot potato one reason for ongoing protests at Aurora detention center

A photo of an ICE bust in progress, from the organization's 2008 annual report.​Since May, an interfaith group has staged a vigil the first Monday of each month at the Aurora Contract Detention Facility, 11901 East 30th Avenue -- and they'll be there again tonight at 6 p.m. Among the many rea ... More >>

Grim details emerge in prison death of sex offender

Inmates claim Ronald Ferguson had been in the unit only a few hours when he was killed.​Last week, we reported on the bludgeoning death of inmate Ronald Ferguson, a convicted child molester, at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility outside of Canon City. A fifty-year-old habitual off ... More >>

MSNBC's prison-reality show and the death of a pedophile

Ronald Ferguson, 50, beaten to death at Territorial prison last week. ​Lockup, MSNBC's voyeuristic peek at life inside America's nastiest prisons, launched its new season Sunday night with some cell floodings and tough talk by thick-necked inmates at Colorado's own Limon Correctional Facility. ... More >>

More details about former poker tour operator Matt Sowash, who was sentenced to five years

Matt Sowash​As Westword reported yesterday, Matt Sowash, the 34-year-old former head of the Amateur Poker Tour, has been sentenced to five years in prison and five years of probation for bilking investors out of more than $400,000. Sowash and business partner Andrew Hicks (who has yet to face ... More >>

Bronson

Clemency for these six prisoners could save millions and serve justice -- so why won't Governor Ritter try it?

Before Ritter, Colorado's governors proved that clemency's risks came with rewards