A Colorado Senate committee has advanced a bill that would enact a text message program to remind criminal defendants of upcoming court hearings, but Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin is unsure how much it could help local defendants.
“Not everyone of these defendants who don’t show up have a cell phone, so I don’t know how that’s going to work,” Nowlin said.
The Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday voted unanimously to advance SB19-036 – called the State Court Administrator Reminder Program – to the Appropriations Committee.
If passed, the bill would require the state court administrator to administer the court reminder program for district, county and municipal courts that use the judicial department’s case management system.
The bill’s summary states the goal is to “significantly reduce the number of defendants who are committed to the custody of a county jail solely as a result of their failure to appear in court.”
According to a Journal analysis of incident reports from Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office and Cortez Police Department, MCSO served at least 50 warrants for failure to appear from November through January, and CPD has served at least 31. These numbers are likely low because officers frequently do not always list the type of warrant in arrest reports.
Cortez Police Department Lt. Andy Brock said the failure-to-appear warrants make up the majority of warrants Cortez police serve.
On traffic stops, Brock said officers always check for warrants, and the department distributes a warrant list to officers on a weekly basis. Officers with some downtime might read through the list and go look for defendants.
“If you know where somebody works or hangs out, you’ll drive by those places,” Brock said. “Sometimes you go by residences, and then sometimes you catch other people in cars. A lot of times, birds of a feather kind of flock.”
Nowlin said deputies are out looking for people with warrants “every day and night.”
On the technology issue, Nowlin said deputies often encounter defendants who have a phone but haven’t topped up their account and therefore cannot receive texts. Or defendants might buy a new phone with a new phone number, which can be hard to track.
“I’d like to see how it works,” he said. “It may be better for other areas.”
The bill’s language states that the court administrator would prioritize text messages unless “a more effective” means to remind defendants becomes available. If a defendant cannot receive text messages, the court administrator could use a phone call, email or other “internet-based technology.”
Courts would be required to send at least two reminder text messages to criminal defendants. If a defendant misses a hearing, the court would send an alert informing the defendant that a warrant has been issued.
The bill would affect district, county and municipal courts. Nowlin said there generally aren’t too many failure-to-appear warrants out of district court, which mostly handles felonies, but they see a lot of those warrants in the smaller municipal court.
“Those are the ones who are a revolving door,” he said.
According to a press release from bill sponsor Sen. Pete Lee, a Democrat from Colorado Springs, the reminder program would improve the fairness of the criminal justice system.
“Passing this bill out of committee is an important step to reform our criminal justice system,” Lee stated. “I look forward to getting it across the finish line.”
