For many years, Colorado’s prison population was on the decline but lately has been on the rise. While this upward tick can be explained in a variety of ways, we must remember that the prison system is filled with our brothers, sisters, fathers, sons and daughters and has disproportionately affected our communities of color.

A major percentage of our prison population have been convicted of drug-related crimes and many suffer from mental illnesses and drug addiction. Our Department of Corrections has become the de facto mental health and drug rehabilitation institutions and this is unacceptable and short sighted. We cannot continue to build more jails and prisons and not direct resources and innovation to the root causes. I have extensive experience working in the criminal justice system and human services fields and I plan to address this issue as one of my first priorities when elected.

As your State Representative, I advocate for policies that divert state resources to mental health and substance use treatment, and increase access to diversion programming. I also advocate for policies that direct our Department of Corrections to allocate more resources to prepare inmates for re-entry into our community. After incarceration, 96% of inmates are released and return to our communities. We want them to be good neighbors and contributing members of our economy.