Roads and public safety

In my mind there is only two things the government should be involved with........building roads and administering public safety. Here's what happens when you focus falls off of either............

Ten people with felony histories were on probation at the time they were arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder during the last nine months in Colorado.

The Denver Post reported Sunday that court files for each of the 10 suspects show they were repeatedly given the chance to continue probation rather than going to prison after instances in which their probation could have been revoked.

The crimes the 10 suspects are accused of include the fatal shooting of a college football player in Boulder, the mutilation death of a 16-year-old Denver girl and the slaying of a Weld County sheriff’s deputy.

The newspaper reported that probation has become a more attractive option than prison because it’s less expensive. It costs taxpayers $35,000 per year to put someone in state prison. Probation costs $9,000 a year.

“I know how serious and upsetting it is to us – especially the officers in the field – when cases end tragically like this,” said Tom Quinn, director of the state’s Division of Probation Services. He said the department will consider implementing a review process in cases where people on probation are accused of violent crimes. The department does not have such a review now.

Probation officers in Colorado are supposed to have only 25 cases when they’re in charge of supervising high-risk offenders, but that limit is often waived, the Post reported.

Let me ask the question. Does Colorado spend money on Medicaid? how about welfare? public health?

I'm thinking the families of all those murder victims think those felons should have been behind bars.

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