Colorado lawmakers are considering paying reparations to criminals. A new bill will provide $3,000 cash to ex-convicts when they’re released from prison.
Senate Bill 24-012 proposes “justice reform” by giving ex-cons $3,000 in cash to help them adjust to the outside world.
Felons usually receive a small voucher when they leave prison, but Colorado Democrats say that’s not enough.
Lawmakers say giving ex-cons $3,000 cash – not vouchers – will help to break the recidivism cycle.
The legislation requires felons to be enrolled in a job-training program to receive the cash.
According to Gazette.com, the cash will tempt recipients to make bad choices (buy alcohol, liquor, weed) “and rewards them for their time behind bars — as if society owed them a debt rather than the other way around.”
According to one of the bill’s sponsors, State Senator James Coleman, the cash payments will “stop the poverty to prison pipeline.”
New York-based Center for Employment Opportunities, which has a similar cash-to-felons program, says the cash payments won’t be misspent and will help facilitate an ex-con’s “ability to successfully reintegrate into their communities.”
