Phil Weiser’s Failed Experiment in Criminal Justice

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice 

It has become a common theme in many states and cities that the authorities who are responsible for the long-term safety and security of their residents, nevertheless subscribe to the popular fallacy that locking up criminals does little to deter future offenses and is less effective in the long run that social programs or rehabilitation efforts, however those might be defined. 

The theory here is that criminals aren’t responsible for their actions, Society is primarily to blame. 

The policies of Colorado’s attorney general, Phil Weiser, and the Democrat dominated Colorado legislature prove how foolish and misguided this theory is. 

In 2019, the Colorado legislature eliminated the option of cash bail for minor offenses, mandating non-monetary bail for lower-level crimes. This was expanded in 2020 when judges were encouraged to release more defendants without cash bail for certain misdemeanors and even felonies.

These actions had an immediate impact on Colorado’s prison population. According to Colorado Department of Correction data, between June 30, 2019 and June 30, 2020, the number of prisoners incarcerated in Colorado fell from 19,951 (347.8 prisoners per 100,000 Colorado residents) to 17,441 (301.4 per 100,000 residents).

By way of comparison, on June 30, 2009, the prison population was 23,186 (466.3 per 100,000 residents) and Colorado was ranked 26th in the nation for violent crime (behind Washington D.C. and other states) and 28th in the nation for property crime rates. 

Back then, Colorado was a relatively safe state for people to live, work, raise families, and build a future.

All this has now changed. 

By 2020, Colorado was ranked 18th in the nation for violent crime, and because so many “lower-level” criminals were being released rather than incarcerated, Colorado became the 2nd worst state in the nation for property crime rates behind only the nation’s poster child for politicians and criminal miscreants, Washington D.C. 

Colorado’s much higher property crime ranking was mostly driven by the mania that “lower-level” repeat offenders had for stealing cars.

During the twelve months to June 30, 2021, Colorado’s prison population fell by a further 2,007 inmates to 15,434, some two-thirds of what it had been in 2009. 

Because some criminals committing more serious crimes were now being released with no-cash bail, Colorado’s national ranking for violent crime rates grew from 18th in 2020 to 8th in 2021. And the state became #1 in the nation for the incidences of property crimes (mostly auto thefts) per 100,000 residents. 

The number of reported violent crime incidents did peak at 32,628 during the twelve months ending June 30, 2022, some 557.7 incidents per 100,000 residents, and this ranked Colorado 7th highest in the nation.

As the prison population began slowly increasing again after 2021, purely because of the huge number and seriousness of the crimes being committed, the incidence of violent crimes per 100,000 residents began falling. Even so, almost every other state did a much better job constraining crime than Colorado’s attorney general Phil Wiser did. 

According to FBI data, despite declining numbers of criminal offenses being reported, in 2024 Colorado increased its violent crime ranking to 6th worst in the nation, and despite some state legislative action (too little too late) to make more car thefts serious crimes, 3rd worst for property crimes. 

Because of its failed efforts at criminal justice reforms, Colorado, under Phil Weiser, is no longer the relatively safe state it once was for people to live, work, raise families, and build a future.

Because of this, the state’s population has begun to decline, employment numbers are down, unemployment numbers are up, and the state’s economy is lurching ever closer to recession.

And all because a bunch of namby-pambies in power in Colorado don’t want to expose dangerous and career criminals to the “trauma” of incarceration, believing that the “certainty” of being caught is a much stronger deterrent than the “severity” of the punishment. 

It may be hard for the average Coloradan to accept that the people in charge of this state are as stupid as they appear to be. So there must be some ulterior motive at play here. 

Perhaps more crime and chaos advances a far left-leaning political ideology that has nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of life of the average Coloradan? That, sadly, seems a plausible reason, and may be worth considering in these unenlightened days as well.

Mike O’Donnell is a small business advocate, nonprofit executive and economic development leader based in Kirk, Colorado. He currently serves as Executive Director of Prairie Rose Development Corp., a mission-driven lender supporting underserved entrepreneurs across the state.

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.