Using the Level of Supervision Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) and other tools as appropriate, DOC shall conduct a comprehensive risk/needs assessment of each offender prior to release for the development of a case plan. This plan will form the basis of providing vouchers (or other approved mechanisms) that assist the offender in accessing immediate services, including housing, medication (for example, insulin), mental health services, addiction treatment, and related programs.

Ensure current (within the last six months) release assessment information is provided to the parole board and community corrections boards.

Develop an efficient system for transferring an offender from DOC institutional custody to the custody of community corrections and/or parole supervision.

Form a collaborative of public and private agencies to identify and develop additional housing resources for special populations who have a criminal record (for example, the aging, those with mental illness, people with developmental disabilities, sex offenders,  and those medical problems).

Whenever feasible, ensure every offender leaving jail and prison may obtain a driver's license or verifiable state identification upon release to the community by implementing the following business practices:

 

A. For the Department of Revenue (DOR) to issue a Colorado driver's license or state identification card to an individual incarcerated in a Department of Corrections (DOC) facility, the DOR will accept a certified state or county issued birth certificate and a DOC photo inmate identification card if the name and date of birth on DOC photo inmate identification card match the name on the birth certificate. A match is permissible if DOC card bears the date of birth and the full name of the incarcerated individual, and this name matches the first and last names on the birth certificate. The lack of a middle name or initial on one of these documents will not disallow a match.

B. The Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) will apply for birth certificates in every state (including U.S. territories) on behalf of incarcerated individuals who request this service. Legal citizens born abroad may also qualify, depending upon the funding level of DOC program.  

C. When DOC determines that the full legal name of the incarcerated individual differs from the name on that person's sentencing mittimus, DOC will include that name with the individual's file. Upon release of that individual, DOC will issue the individual a DOC photo inmate identification card bearing both the name entered on the individual's sentencing mittimus as well as the full legal name of that individual.  

D. DOC should sign the newest memorandum of understanding with the Social Security Administration and include all prisons, including the private prisons, on the MOU in order to apply for Social Security cards on behalf of incarcerated individuals whose full legal name they are able to confirm. Eligibility cannot be confined to the name on the mittimus.

E. Arresting entities should confirm and use a person's full legal name on all documents. This may require training on how to properly identify a person upon arrests.

 

F. The law enforcement community, including state patrol, local police, sheriffs, and community corrections, should develop a statewide standard regarding the retention of (and consequences for the destruction of) primary identification documents.

 

G. If the district attorney's office receives information from law enforcement or the defense counsel concerning a defendant's true name and identity, the district attorney's office will review documents and, when appropriate, notify the Court so that the mittimus may reflect the defendant's true name and identity.

 

H. If the defense counsel receives information concerning a defendant's true name and identity, the defense counsel will review documents and, when appropriate, notify the district attorney's office and the Court so that the mittimus may reflect the defendant's true name and identity.

 

I. The importance of placing the full legal name on an individual's court record, including the mittimus, as an AKA at the request of a party, should be underscored to judges and clerks.

 

J. The state court system should investigate whether the court record, if filed in a name other than the individual's full legal name, could contain a field to record the individual's full legal name in addition to listing the full legal name as an AKA, at the request of a party.

 

K. The Department of Public Health and Environment's Office of Vital Records should develop a memorandum of understanding with departments of corrections in every state. This will allow departments of corrections in states other than Colorado to apply for birth certificates on behalf of inmates born in Colorado.

 

L. Jail and DOC personnel should provide a one-page explanation to all individuals leaving these facilities who will need to appear at a Division of Motor Vehicle office in order to obtain a driver's license or state identification card.

M. The General Assembly should provide DOC and jails with the necessary funding to accomplish the tasks explained here, including fees to purchase birth certificates, dossiers, and other required documents.

 

N. The Commission supports the effort of the Legislative Oversight Committee for the Study of the Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness Who Are Involved in the Justice System to obtain and fund a van that will travel to jails and other locations in the seven-metro county area to provide identification documents

 

O. The Commission supports DOC's pilot ID project with the DOR involving mobile units that issue identification to individuals releasing from incarceration.

 

P. All parties addressed in these recommendations should report their progress back to the Commission in February 2009.

Any limitation or restriction of an offender's driver's license while on parole and community corrections must be based on specific, written, and standardized criteria.

For individuals entering community corrections facilities, provide the opportunity to defer the first two to four weeks of subsistence payments for those who are indigent.

Each judicial district should be required to conduct an inventory of the services and resources, including available housing and the capacity of those resources, to address the needs of offenders reentering the community. This information should be paired with an analysis of the risk/needs of offenders released from the Department of Corrections. Re-entry service gaps must be identified, along with the costs to fill those gaps. Using this information, a plan should be developed that identifies the appropriate parties to provide services and a funding scheme. Inventory reports should be provided to the Division of Criminal Justice, which will forward the information to the Commission.

Educate and encourage housing authorities to be no more restrictive than the HUD guidelines in refusing public housing to people with criminal records.

Encourage the use of discretionary parole to community corrections in lieu of homeless parole plans to provide a stable living situation prior to the offender's mandatory parole date (MRD). Six to eight months prior to the MRD, a case manager should submit an application to community corrections for individuals who are likely to parole homeless.

Increase "gate money" for first-time parolees upon release.