Assignment #9

Colorado is a state that has the death penalty. However, they have only executed one person since 1976. It was a man executed in 1997. Before 1976, there were 101 total death sentences carried out. 3 people currently are serving on death row, all male. There is a 3.1 murder rate per 100,000 persons. Life without parole is an option and the death penalty can include felons not responsible for the murder. There have been zero innocent persons freed from death row and zero clemencies granted. Only the Governor has sole authority to grant clemency. The death penalty is carried out by Lethal Injection.
First Execution in Colorado
The first execution in Colorado took place on April in 1859. The criminal being executed, due to murder, was a white male known as John Stoefel. His age is unknown but the type of execution he received was a hanging.
Last Execution in Colorado
The last execution in Colorado took place on the 13 of October in 1997. The Criminal being executed, due to kidnapping- murder, was a white male at the age of 53 who went by Davis Gray Lee. The type of execution he received was that of injection.
Compare/ Contrast
With the information provided stating the two types of execution, the information that is most recent gives more information about the criminal. For instance the information given about the first execution does not provide the criminals age and the last execution does. The types of execution the two received are different as well. Though both were executed due to a murder charge, the first criminal received a hanging which is an intense punishment while the other received an injection which is said to be painless.
Colorado had the following PROBATION populations in 2006: 30,328 entries & 24,071 exits were reported. The probation population was 63,032 and the number on probation per 100,000 adult residents was 1,743.
Colorado had the following PAROLE populations in 2006: 7,927 entries and 6,572 exits reported. The parole population was 9,551 and the number on parole per 100,000 residents was 264.
Colorado state has a higher rate of probation.
In comparison, the state of Minnesota had the following PROBATION populations in 2006: 88,735 entries & 80,324 exits were reported. The probation population was 127,289 and the number on probation per 100,000 residents was 3,243.
Minnesota had the following PAROLE populations in 2006: 5,427 entries and 5,003 exits reported. The parole population was 4,431 and the number on parole per 100,000 residents was 113.
Minnesota state has a higher rate of probation.
When comparing Colorado to Minnesota, they are similar because they both have a higher rate of probation over parole...but when looking at the numbers, it is easy to see that Minnesota has a much higher rate of probation. The increase is almost equal in comparison when looking at the overall population of the two states. With that said, its odd to see that the rate of parole is much lower in Minnesota than it is in Colorado.

Students make amends through Restorative Justice
by Greg Swenson, University Communications
The Restorative Justice program at CU-Boulder has come a long way since 1999, when CU became the first university in the nation to begin a pilot program offering students who got themselves into trouble a chance to make amends with injured parties while avoiding court.
Restorative Justice is available to students who are first-time offenders of mostly nonviolent crimes, such as hosting or attending a loud party. Rather than going to trial or pleading guilty, these students take a plea bargain and agree to go through CU’s Restorative Justice program.
“The Restorative Justice program allows students to take responsibility for their actions by talking with community members and learning how their negative actions have affected others in the community that they live in,” said Gina Bata, CU-Boulder’s Restorative Justice program coordinator since fall 2006. “The majority of students who have gone through the program report to us that they learned from their mistake and the large majority of them don’t get into trouble again.”

Once the student offender has agreed to participate in the program, they have agreed to take responsibility for their actions. One of the main components of the program is a group conference centered on the student’s violation and how it affected specific victims or the community in general.

Bata has 25 student facilitators who work with an additional 40 community members to host these group conferences. The majority of cases involve “quality of life” and low level violence violations, and are handled by a Community Accountability Board, which is made up of the three community representatives and two student facilitators.
During the conference, the student offenders, student facilitators and community members discuss the offense and agree on a plan to “right the wrong,” according to Bata. This could involve community service, letters of apology or a number of other possible solutions.

“One of the best things about Restorative Justice is that people in the community are also given an outlet and a chance to offer input to students to help them understand their community, and to talk about how their actions affect others living near them,” Bata said.
The Restorative Justice program is housed in the Office of Judicial Affairs and also partners with the Boulder City Attorney’s Office in cooperation with the Boulder Municipal Court. It has handled more than 300 cases so far in the 2008-09 school year (Swenson, 2009).

Crowther, Alicia. (2009, November 11). Parole Population and Probation Population. Retrived from https://webcampus.nevada.edu.

Swenson, Greg. ( 2009, January 13).Students make amends through Restorative Justice.University of Colorado at Boulder. Retrived from
http://www.colorado.edu/insidecu/editions/2009/1-13/story1.html.

RBGStreetScholar.(2009, November 16). Retrived from http://media.photobucket.com/image/death%20penalty/RBGStreetScholar/m197400560386.jpg.