Denver Colorado Criminal Law Blog » Prison

Denver DA will NOT file charges against jail deputies in death of homeless man in custody

Andres Guevara — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 01:37:48 +0000

56 year-old Marvin Booker died while in custody at the Van Cise-Simonet Detention Center in Denver, Colorado. Interestingly, although Denver prosecutors have reviewed a video tape of the incident, no copy of the tape has been provided to media or outside observers as of this date. Nonetheless, the Denver DA has reached the conclusion that Mr. Booker, who “stopped breathing” while be restrained by several deputies, as a result of his “violent refusal to cooperate.”

Interestingly, the Denver Corner has previously ruled that Mr. Booker’s “death was the result of homicide — meaning it was caused by another person. The cause of his death was ruled as “cardiorespiratory arrest during physical restraint.”

Read more: DA: No charges against jail deputies in Booker death – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_16196189#ixzz10yM2mWSH
If you have been accused of a crime, call the Law Office of Andres R. Guevara for a free consultation. I will aggressively fight for your rights and freedom. www.guevaracoloradolaw.com

Denver Inmate Hangs Himself

Andres Guevara — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:51:39 +0000

Today, a 25 year old man hung himself in Denver County Jail while awaiting extradition to Kansas for a meth charge. Thomas Allen Barton had just completed a fifteen day sentence for shoplifting. Clearly, Mr. Barton was struggling with personal demons and its unfortunate that either no one saw the warning signs or came to his aid in time.

Source: http://www.denverpost.com/crime/ci_13366848

Violent Crimes Down Again

Andres Guevara — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:50:54 +0000

FBI figures released today show that nationwide violent crimes are down for the second year in a row and property crimes are also down. Still, Colorado continues to construct prisons (the DOC requested over $400 million in prison expansion) and the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition (CCJRC) reports that the prison population will continue to increase:

Colorado’s incaration rate of 506 per 100,000 is much greater than the 50-state average (462) and the average of the Western states (458).

So what accounts for the disparity between a drop of violent/property crime and an increase in prison growth? Clearly, the main cash cow for prisons remain to be drug charges and probation/parole violations. Data compiled by the CCJRC show that:

22% of all people sent to prison in Colorado were convicted of a drug offense
The U.S. as a whole incarcerates more people for drug offenses that the European Union does for all offenses combined, even though the EU has 100 million more citizens that the U.S
Colorado spends less per capital on substance abuse prevention, treatment, and research that any other state that provided data to the National Center for Alcohol and Substance Abuse
in 2008, 29% of all persons sent to prison in Colorado were being returned to prison for a technical violation of parole (i.e., no new crime was commmitted)