Ted Tow, director of the Colorado District Attorney's Council... said the maximum penalty for aggravated assault would drop from 32 years to 20 years. He also questioned whether there would be time to consider such sweeping changes this session.

"To minimize the sentence sends a very clear message to the criminal element that we're not going to hold you accountable for your actions," Tow said.

We are currently spending twice as much on corrections as higher education and it is now the 3 largest item in our budget and growing.  Most other states have taken similar moves as an effort to be evidence-based, smarter on crime and smarter with spending taxpayer money.  Colorado can't afford NOT to consider sentencing reform.

Here are some facts to consider:

It costs $30,386 per inmate per year in operating costs and $150,773 per year per inmate for capital construction.
74% of our prison population is in for non-violent offenses.
The Department of Corrections has become the single largest "mental health care provider" in the State of Colorado.
Probation costs $3.42 per day to supervise whereas prison costs $78.95 per day to supervise.
1 in 29 Colorado residents are now under correctional control.  (That figure was 1 in 102 in 1982).
At the current rate of incarceration we would need to build a new prison every year.
For the cost of incarcerating 1 inmate we could
Educate 5 children in K12;
Fund tuition for 10 students in higher education;
Pay the full health insurance premiums for 3 families per year;
Fund 6 Medicaid enrollees for health care;