Tina Peters will be released from Colorado prison June 1. Where will she go?

Colorado parole board members have just under two weeks to create a parole plan for Tina Peters, the former Mesa County Clerk who was convicted for her role in a breach of her office’s election system. 

Peters will be released from La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo on June 1 after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis commuted her sentence Friday. Polis’ executive order says she will be granted parole effective June 1, and a spokesperson for his office confirmed that means she will be released that day.

Polis commuted Peters’ sentence, but did not pardon her, so she is still a convicted felon. Attorneys for Peters have said they want to get her conviction overturned. She was sentenced to almost nine years in prison in 2024. 

A commutation from the governor changes the typical process someone must go through before they are released from state prison, but it is unclear exactly what that will look like for Peters, given the novelty of her case. 

Republican Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, who prosecuted Peters, told Newsline on Tuesday his biggest question about her parole is where the Colorado State Board of Parole intends to place her. 

“She is not well liked in our community, and there is the potential for other public safety issues with her being around,” said Rubinstein, who is based in Grand Junction.

John Case, one of Peters’ attorneys, said Tuesday that he has not yet seen any information from the parole board outlining what her parole plan will include. He said he knows details related to where she wants to live once she is released, but he declined to discuss them, since that information is not publicly available.

Rändi Moore, chair of the parole board, did not respond to a request for comment from Newsline prior to publication.

Coloradans from across the political spectrum have sharply criticized Polis’ decision to cut Peters’ sentence. That includes the bipartisan Colorado County Clerks Association, every single Democratic member of the state Legislature, members of Colorado’s federal delegation, and a growing list of Democrats who filed a formal complaint against Polis with the Colorado Democratic Party. U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat who is running for governor, told CNN the commutation disqualified Polis from consideration for a Senate appointment if Bennet becomes governor. 

Peters Case Not ‘Normal’

A person who is eligible for parole typically will attend a hearing before the parole board, which determines whether the person is a good candidate for parole and, if so, what the conditions of their parole will be. Peters does not need the parole board to approve her release, just the conditions of her release.

Those conditions can include requirements to take certain classes, restrictions on travel, and restrictions on interactions with victims of the crime committed, or anyone associated with the victims, said Kyle Giddings, deputy director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. A person on parole is also assigned a parole officer to monitor their activity outside of incarceration. The parole plan includes information on an approved residence. 

If someone violates the terms of their parole plan, they can be arrested and taken back to prison. Giddings said it’s “hard to imagine” that enforcement of Peters’ parole plan will be like any other parole. 

“Nothing about this process has been normal. Nothing about her case has been normal … so I expect her parole to not be normal,” Giddings said. “I have no expectations of anything less than her possibly trying to rain hellfire upon our election workers.”

Peters, an election denier and prominent ally of President Donald Trump, has already signaled her intent to “support election integrity” once she is released. “Election integrity” is often used to signal support for election fraud conspiracy theories. Giddings said he is curious what conditions the parole board will set for Peters around who she can interact with related to elections. 

“Are they going to ban her from going to any rallies, or are they going to just ban her from interacting with duly elected election officials?” Giddings said. 

Giddings said he is frustrated to see Peters get a commutation when there are at least a dozen people still in prison who completed a specialized program for people convicted when they were younger than 21 years old. The governor has final authority to allow parole for people who complete the program, but he hasn’t granted it to anyone since 2023. A bill Polis signed into law Tuesday will move the decision to the parole board if the governor doesn’t take action within 60 days of the application. 

“The fact that he just has left these guys and gals who’ve done the work to turn their lives around for three years, living in purgatory, and then turns around and does this with Tina Peters, is just infuriating,” Giddings said.

Polis has said Peters’ sentence was “harsh” and that it improperly punished her for protected speech.

This story is republished from Colorado Newsline, a part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.