A 2021 state law set up a review system to figure out how to decrease the length of time juveniles are held in detention
Division of Youth Services
Posted inPolitics and Government
Kids as young as 10 can be prosecuted in Colorado. A proposal to raise the age to 13 is getting pushback from DAs.
A similar proposal was scrapped last year in favor of a task force to study the issue. This year’s version would create a system of services for kids between 10 and 12 who get in trouble with police.
Posted inPolitics and Government
Colorado’s youth corrections system wants to grow, which is the opposite of what lawmakers want
Lawmakers reduced the state limit on the number of kids and teens sent to juvenile detention centers just two years ago. Now the Division of Youth Services is asking to bump it up.
Posted inCrime and Courts
Juvenile violent crime is rising in Colorado, making up 41% of youth corrections admissions
Researchers are looking into the link between violent crime and teenagers spending more time virtually connected but physically alone
Posted inNews
Colorado will continue locking up 10-year-olds, for now, after legislation to raise the prosecution age to 13 stalls
The youngest kids arrested and locked up in Colorado’s youth corrections system are 10 years old, a practice that will continue for now after legislation to raise the prosecution age to 13 was rewritten in the final days of the legislative session. So far this year, Colorado has arrested and locked up 33 kids ages […]
Posted inNews
Colorado’s new professional ultimate disc team wants to grow the sport — so it turned to young offenders
Aaron Alvarado, a 21-year-old inmate with a tiny, Cindy Lou Who-style ponytail on his head, got the hang of it pretty quickly, even though it was his first go at ultimate disc. “All you have to do is run fast and jump high,” said Alvarado, who played baseball and football in high school back in […]
Posted inColoradans, Economy, Health, Housing, News, Politics and Government
Colorado governor eyes former youth corrections campus for new homeless recovery center
WATKINS — On the treeless flatlands east of Denver, in a field of yellow-brown weeds that feels like the middle of nowhere, sits an empty campus with seven dormitories, 500 beds, a cafeteria, a gym and a football field. Gov. Jared Polis has big plans for the place, a state-owned facility that for two decades […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Colorado hires private investigators to find teens who went missing when the state abruptly closed a youth center
When state child welfare officials arrived at a now-closed youth center to collect teenagers and send them to other placements, surprised kids scattered into the fields surrounding the residential facility in Watkins. A month later, two teenage boys are still missing. And in the aftermath of what critics are calling a botched operation to abruptly […]
Posted inCOVID, Crime and Courts, Health, News, Politics and Government
For incarcerated youth in Colorado, the coronavirus pandemic isn’t over yet
It was late April and Renee sounded drained and worried. She hadn’t hugged her son or seen his face without a screen pixelating his features since the COVID-19 pandemic began in Colorado more than a year earlier. “It’s heartbreaking,” she said over Zoom. “That is something a parent could never describe. It’s 24/7 of a […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, News, Politics and Government
Colorado youth corrections system sees biggest spike in violent offenders in a decade
The number of young people in Colorado’s youth corrections system because they killed someone jumped by 32% in the past fiscal year, an alarming increase that coincides with the system’s largest spike in youth violent crime in a decade. Even more startling: In the past four years, the number of youth in the Colorado Division […]