The act reforms and clarifies the criminal competency to proceed process. The act provides necessary parties with access to information related to the defendant's claim of incompetency to proceed. The act adds to the information that is included in a competency report. The act delineates a court's options when it finds that a defendant is incompetent to proceed. The act directs when competency services may be provided on an outpatient basis. The act sets forth the circumstances when a court has to dismiss the defendant's case based on the highest level of charge against the defendant and how long the defendant has been waiting for restoration services. APPROVED by Governor June 4, 2024 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE June 4, 2024 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE July 1, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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There is currently a jail standards oversight committee and commission (oversight committee and commission) tasked with developing jail standards in Colorado. The oversight committee and commission are set to repeal on July 1, 2024. The act repeals the commission and extends the oversight committee until September 1, 2033. Each county jail shall comply with the standards adopted by the oversight committee beginning July 1, 2026. The oversight committee shall post the standards on its website. If the oversight committee revises a jail standard, each county jail shall comply with the revised standard no later than one year after the revision is adopted, or earlier if specified by the oversight committee when adopting the revision. The act creates a jail standards advisory committee (advisory committee). The advisory committee consists of: 2 sheriffs appointed by a statewide organization representing the county sheriffs of Colorado; 2 county commissioners appointed by Colorado counties, incorporated; The state public defender or the state public defender's designee; One physical or behavioral health professional with experience working in a jail, appointed by the oversight committee; and One person representing a statewide organization that advocates on behalf of people experiencing incarceration, appointed by the oversight committee. The advisory committee shall begin meeting in July 2024 and shall plan assessments of jails to begin in January 2025. Additional duties of the advisory committee include, but are not limited to: Utilize peer assessors selected by the advisory committee to perform assessments of a jail's physical facilities and its written policies and procedures to assess compliance with jail standards; Provide the oversight committee with recommendations for revising jail standards and ways to address jail needs necessary to comply with jail standards; and Provide the oversight committee with recommendations to address jail needs necessary to comply with jail standards. The advisory committee may also establish a process to grant variances from the jail standards to local jails. The act creates the jail standards advisory committee cash fund to fund the activities of the advisory committee. The act requires the attorney general to conduct assessments of jails, in conjunction with the advisory committee, for compliance with jail standards. The attorney general may also conduct an independent special assessment of a jail when requested by the governor, the oversight committee, or a sheriff. The attorney general shall prepare a report of each special assessment. The advisory committee shall annually submit a report to the oversight committee. The act requires the division of criminal justice in the department of public safety to create a list of funding assistance available to jails to offset the costs of compliance with the jail standards. For the 2024-25 state fiscal year, the act appropriates: $305,000 from the general fund to the jail standards advisory committee cash fund; $41,248 from the general fund to the legislative department; and $12,532 from the general fund to the department of law. APPROVED by Governor June 3, 2024 EFFECTIVE June 3, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Current law subjects a peace officer who uses unlawful force or fails to intervene in the unlawful use of force to criminal and civil penalties as well as disciplinary measures through the peace officers standards and training board (P.O.S.T. board). The act defines prone restraint as a use of force. The act requires law enforcement agencies to adopt written policies and procedures concerning use of the prone position and prone restraint by officers certified by the P.O.S.T. board; sheriff's deputies, regardless of P.O.S.T. board certification; and Colorado state patrol officers. Law enforcement agencies must post the adopted policies and procedures on their publicly accessible websites or make them available upon request. The policies and procedures must address how and when to request or render medical aid for use of force involving prone restraint, when to get medical clearance for use of force involving a prone restraint when there are injuries or complaints of injuries, how and when to render appropriate medical aid within the scope of a peace officer's training for any use of force involving prone restraint, and how and when to transition a person placed in a prone position into a recovery position that allows the person to breathe normally. The act requires law enforcement agencies to review the adopted policies and procedures at least every five years and, beginning on or before July 1, 2026, to implement and train peace officers on their contents. The P.O.S.T. board must make its training on the use of the prone position available to all law enforcement agencies in the state. APPROVED by Governor June 3, 2024 EFFECTIVE June 3, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the Arie P. Taylor sickle cell disease outreach program (outreach program) in the department of public health and environment (department). To implement the outreach program, the act requires the department to contract with one or more community-based nonprofit organizations (outreach organizations) to provide outreach and support services in the community to individuals living with sickle cell disease and their families. The department is required to solicit applicants and administer the outreach program. On or before January 1, 2025, the department is required to contract with one or more outreach organizations to implement the outreach program and to give priority to outreach organizations with experience in providing services and support to the sickle cell community and that meet other criteria in the act. The outreach program may include informal counseling and health guidance, direction and support to individuals and their families in locating and accessing services in the community, outreach concerning activities and programs available to individuals and families living with sickle cell disease, peer support and referrals, advocacy regarding the interests of the sickle cell disease community, referrals for screening, and other services and support identified by the department. The department is required to approve the services provided through a contract and may consult with the university of Colorado school of medicine's sickle-cell anemia treatment and research center to identify needed services and supports. Prior to the expiration of a contract, the outreach organization is required to prepare and submit a written report to the department describing the impact of the outreach program provided under the contract, and the department shall provide the report to the legislative health and human services committees or their successor committees. The act repeals the outreach program, effective July 1, 2030. The act appropriates $200,000 from the general fund to the department to implement the outreach program. APPROVED by Governor June 3, 2024 EFFECTIVE June 3, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act implements recommendations of the department of regulatory agencies (DORA) in its 2023 sunset review of the state plumbing board (board). The act: Continues the board for 8 years to September 1, 2032; Authorizes the board to discipline plumbers who aid or abet a person in violating the plumbing practice act or other statutes that apply to plumbers; Removes the political affiliation requirement for the board, which requires that a major political party not have more than one member more than the other major political party; Clarifies that the licensed categories of plumbers, plumbing apprentices, and registered plumbing contractors can work on water conditioning systems without being required to register with the board as a water conditioning contractor, principal, or installer; Modernizes the term "journeyman" by changing it to "journeyworker" throughout the plumbing practice act, effective July 1, 2025; Modifies the license period for licenses issued or renewed on or after March 1, 2027, to be 3 years or as otherwise determined by the director of the division of professions and occupations in DORA (director); Modifies the grounds for discipline of a licensee regarding habitual or excessive use or abuse of controlled substances or alcohol and removes "substance use disorder" as a ground for discipline; Requires a plumbing contractor to display the plumbing contractor's and attached master plumber's registration information on the plumbing contractor's vehicle or in other locations and makes a plumbing contractor's failure to display the required information grounds for discipline; Repeals the requirement that the board send a letter of admonition by certified mail; Requires persons who are engaged in the business of installing, removing, inspecting, testing, and repairing backflow prevention devices to be licensed, except when installing or testing a stand-alone fire suppression sprinkler system; and Makes technical changes, including to replace the word "administrator" with the word "director" where appropriate and to replace references to "he or she" with gender-neutral terms. APPROVED by Governor June 3, 2024 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE July 1, 2024 PORTIONS EFFECTIVE July 1, 2025(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act extends the human trafficking council for 7 years. Under current law, members of the human trafficking council serve without compensation. The act requires appointed survivor council members receive an hourly rate for time attending council meetings not to exceed 8 hours per meeting at the expert witness rate. The existing address confidentiality program allows victims of domestic violence, sex offenses, and stalking and persons involved in the provision of reproductive health care to use a substitute address for purposes of public records and confidential mail forwarding. The act adds victims of human trafficking as persons who can use the address confidentiality program. The act allows an individual convicted of a crime that is not subject to the "Victim Rights Act" to motion the court to vacate the conviction if the crime was committed as a result of the individual being a victim of human trafficking. A court uses a clear and convincing evidentiary standard to determine whether to order the conviction vacated. For the state fiscal year 2024-25, the act appropriates $266,826 from the general fund to the department of public safety for use by the division of criminal justice to implement the act. APPROVED by Governor May 31, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 31, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act adds transgender identity to the classes identified in bias-motivated crimes and harassment. The act redefines sexual orientation for purposes of bias-motivated crimes as a person's orientation toward sexual or emotional attraction and the behavior or social affiliation that may result from the attraction. APPROVED by Governor May 31, 2024 EFFECTIVE July 1, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act changes the effective date of the creation of the new twenty-third judicial district from January 7, 2025, to January 14, 2025, to coincide with the date that the district attorney of that district will be sworn in. To facilitate the creation of the new judicial district, the act authorizes the operations and employees of the eighteenth judicial district to be divided into 2 distinct units. APPROVED by Governor May 24, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 24, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act expands the behavioral health-care continuum gap grant program to include awarding a community investment grant for a new capital construction project. The act transfers $4 million from the general fund to the behavioral and mental health cash fund for purposes of the act. The act appropriates $4 million from the behavioral and mental health cash fund to the department of human services for the behavioral health-care continuum gap grant program related to integrated behavioral health services. APPROVED by Governor May 24, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 24, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Current Colorado law requires that a decree providing for placement of a child with a public agency be accompanied by a court order that obligates the child's parent to pay a fee, based on the parent's ability to pay. The fee covers the costs of a guardian ad litem and of providing for residential care of the child. The act removes the requirement for a court order obligating a child's parent to pay the fee for residential child care and guardian ad litem costs. Instead, the act authorizes a delegate child support enforcement unit to impose a fee only when a county child welfare unit determines a referral is appropriate in accordance with rules promulgated by the state board of human services (state board). The act removes the requirements that this fee be based on a parent's ability to pay and that the fee cover the cost of a guardian ad litem. Current Colorado law assigns child support by operation of law to the state department of human services to reimburse county, state, and federal out-of-home placement costs when a child is placed in foster care. The act limits assignments to current, rather than previously accrued, child support obligations. The act grants a delegate child support enforcement unit discretion to enforce a child support obligation when a county child welfare unit determines a referral is appropriate in accordance with rules promulgated by the state board. APPROVED by Governor May 22, 2024 EFFECTIVE May 22, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)