AFC Position: SB 26-111
AFC Position: Against
Bill: SB 26-111 — Colorado State
Summary
Senate Bill 26-111 amends Colorado’s Lifetime Supervision Act (CRS 18-1.3-1004) to prohibit courts from sentencing to probation any individual convicted of: Class 4 felony sexual assault on a child; Class 4 felony sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust; or Class 3 felony sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust when the victim is under 15. Under current law, judges may sentence these individuals to an indeterminate probation term with intensive supervision. This bill eliminates that option entirely, mandating incarceration in the Department of Corrections for all three offense categories regardless of individual risk level, treatment history, or case circumstances.
Our Position
Advocates for Change opposes SB 26-111. This bill strips judges of the individualized sentencing discretion that Colorado’s existing sex offense management framework is built upon — and it does so without evidentiary justification.
Colorado’s Sex Offender Management Board (SOMB) tracks re-offense rates for individuals in sex offense-specific treatment. Their data consistently shows sexual re-offense rates of just 3–5% among treatment completers — among the lowest of any crime classification. National research confirms this: a Bureau of Justice Statistics nine-year follow-up found only 7.7% of people released after sexual offense convictions were rearrested for another sex offense, the second-lowest rearrest rate of any offense category tracked. The U.S. Sentencing Commission followed more than 32,000 individuals with sexual offense histories over eight years and found fewer than 0.2% were rearrested for sexual assault.
These are not “frightening and high” recidivism rates. They are among the lowest in the criminal justice system — and they are lowest of all for individuals who complete community-based treatment under supervision. Mandatory incarceration interrupts that treatment pipeline, destabilizes individuals who are actively succeeding under supervision, and produces no corresponding public safety benefit.
Colorado’s current Lifetime Supervision Act already requires courts to consider a comprehensive sex offense-specific evaluation and validated risk assessment before sentencing. Judges can — and do — impose incarceration when the facts warrant it. SB 26-111 does not give judges better tools. It removes the tools they already have. Evidence-based policy requires individualized assessment, not blanket legislative mandates driven by offense label alone.
How This Affects Our Community
For registrants and their families, SB 26-111 means that rehabilitation, treatment progress, risk assessment outcomes, and individual circumstances will no longer factor into sentencing for these offense classes. A person who has completed evaluation, poses a low assessed risk, has stable housing and family support, and is a strong candidate for intensive supervision probation will be sent to prison anyway — because this bill says the judge’s hands are tied.
Families who have been active participants in their loved one’s treatment and reintegration planning will see that work made legally irrelevant at the moment of sentencing. Children and spouses who depend on that person financially and emotionally will bear the collateral consequences of a mandatory sentence that the court had no power to avoid.
This bill also continues a troubling pattern of carving sexual offense convictions out of reforms that apply to every other crime category — regardless of what the evidence shows about individual risk. When reform excludes people based on offense label rather than demonstrated danger, it signals that rehabilitation is only meaningful for some people. Advocates for Change rejects that premise. We will continue to advocate for sentencing policy that reflects the data, respects judicial discretion, and treats every individual as exactly that — an individual.