Colorado voters may soon get the chance to do what their Legislature should have done already. Initiative 108 would require life in prison without parole for people convicted of sexually trafficking minors. A new Common Sense Institute report, highlighted by the Denver Gazette, examines what that policy could mean for Colorado’s prison system, sentencing structure and taxpayers.
Good. Examine it. Debate it. Put numbers on it. Voters should know exactly what they are approving.
But somewhere along the way, Colorado’s political class needs to remember who this law is supposed to protect. We are talking about adults who sexually traffic children. Not shoplifters. Not somebody who made one stupid decision at 19. Sex traffickers who prey on kids. If there is a category of criminal conduct deserving the harshest punishment society can legally impose, this is it.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Initiative 108 draws a very bright line. Sexually trafficking a minor would carry a mandatory life sentence without parole. That is not subtle, and it should not be. Some crimes are so vile that society is entirely justified in saying: you do not get another chance to prey on children.
- Yes, prison costs money. So does evil. CSI examines the added cost of keeping these offenders behind bars for life. Fine. Put the number on the page. But please spare me the hand-wringing that treats incarceration costs as though they exist in a vacuum. The lifelong damage inflicted on trafficked children, their families and communities carries a cost too. A much bigger one.
- Mandatory sentencing means judges get less discretion. That is part of the point. Colorado has spent years treating judicial flexibility like an unquestionable virtue. It is not. Discretion can be useful. It can also produce wildly inconsistent outcomes and sentences that leave normal people asking whether anyone in the courthouse remembers who the victim was.
- The Legislature had its chance. Lawmakers could have drawn this line themselves. They did not. That is why Protect Kids Colorado is taking measures like Initiative 108 directly to voters. Apparently, protecting children from the worst predators imaginable now requires a citizens’ initiative because the Capitol cannot bring itself to finish the job.
- Opponents will talk about nuance, capacity and unintended consequences. Those questions can be answered. What cannot be answered away is the central moral issue: what should happen to someone proven beyond a reasonable doubt to have sexually trafficked a child? My answer is simple. They should spend the rest of their life behind bars.
My Bottom Line
I fully support Initiative 108.
Frankly, this is one of those ballot measures that makes you wonder why we need a ballot measure in the first place. Sex traffickers who target children deserve the harshest sentence available. Period. Colorado’s children should not be asked to bear additional risk because politicians, activists or judges are uncomfortable imposing permanent consequences on people who permanently scar their victims.
And yes, I know the argument. It costs money to house someone in prison for life. Of course it does. Government has a lot of responsibilities I am willing to question, trim or eliminate entirely. Keeping convicted child sex traffickers away from children for the rest of their lives is not one of them. The cost to society, to families and especially to the children whose lives are shattered by trafficking is far greater than the cost of a prison cell.
I also have very little patience for the argument that judges simply need more freedom. They have had plenty. Colorado has spent years bending over backward to find alternatives, second chances, mitigating circumstances and fashionable theories about criminal justice. Somewhere in all that compassionate nuance, the victim too often becomes an afterthought. Colorado’s kids deserve better.
The Legislature’s first responsibility should be protecting innocent people, especially children. Instead, we repeatedly get a political system more worried about appearing enlightened than drawing hard lines against people who do monstrous things. I am glad Protect Kids Colorado is stepping up where the Legislature has not. If voters are asked whether a convicted child sex trafficker deserves to ever walk free again, my answer is easy.
No.
Source: Denver Gazette
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