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SB19-172

Protect From Unlawful Abandonment And Confinement

Concerning crimes related to an at-risk person, and, in connection therewith, creating the crimes of unlawful abandonment and unlawful confinement and making an appropriation.
Session:
2019 Regular Session
Subject:
Crimes, Corrections, & Enforcement
Bill Summary

At-risk persons - unlawful abandonment - false imprisonment - appropriation. The act makes it a crime to unlawfully abandon an at-risk person. The intentional and unreasonable desertion of an at-risk person in a manner that endangers the safety of that person constitutes unlawful abandonment. Unlawful abandonment is a class 1 misdemeanor.

The act creates the crime of false imprisonment of an at-risk person if:

  • The person knowingly confines or detains an at-risk person in a locked or barricaded room or other space; and
  • Such confinement or detention was part of a continued pattern of cruel punishment or unreasonable isolation or confinement of the at-risk person; or
  • The person knowingly and unreasonably confines or detains an at-risk person by tying, caging, chaining, or otherwise using similar physical restraints to restrict the at-risk person's freedom of movement; or
  • The person knowingly and unreasonably confines or detains an at-risk person by means of force, threats, or intimidation designed to restrict the at-risk person's freedom of movement.

False imprisonment of an at-risk person is a class 6 felony pursuant to the first 2 ways to commit the crime and a class 1 misdemeanor pursuant to the third.

To comply with the statutorily-required prison costs of the act, the act appropriates:

  • For the 2019-20 state fiscal year, $110,652 from the capital construction fund to the corrections expansion reserve fund;
  • For the 2020-21 state fiscal year,$26,220 to the department of corrections from the general fund; and
  • For the 2021-22 state fiscal year, $1,902 to the department of corrections from the general fund.
    (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Status

Introduced
Passed
Became Law

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Bill Text

The Colorado Senate and House of Representatives will not convene on Monday, January 20, 2025 in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day.

The effective date for bills enacted without a safety clause is August 6, 2025, if the General Assembly adjourns sine die on May 7, 2025 (unless otherwise specified). Details