DA's Office receives state grant to hire staff to address COVID-related backlogs

NEWS RELEASE
BOULDER COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE 
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The District Attorney’s Office is pleased to announce that it has been awarded grant funding under the Coronavirus Emergency Supplemental Funding Program (CESF) from the state of Colorado (Division of Criminal Justice Program). This grant award will allow the DA’s Office to add four new positions, as well as supplies required to sustain and improve our work on the backlog of cases, domestic violence prosecutions, crime data collection and analysis, and diversion and re-entry programs.

At the onset of the pandemic, the DA’s Office moved quickly to enact crisis responses. These efforts have included working with local law enforcement to maintain community safety; developing protocols with the courts to reduce the public presence at the courthouse and move most court appearances to a virtual format; and reducing the jail population without immediate risk to community safety. We also developed enhanced outreach and advocacy for victims of child abuse, domestic violence, and elder abuse. In March, our office had correctly identified these offenses as a growing concern due to the isolation and stress caused by the pandemic.

The CESF grant funding will assist the DA’s Office in each of these areas. The grant award period is retroactive from June through Jan. 31, 2022 and may be extended to a later date.

The grant-funded employees are two deputy district attorneys, an administrative technician, and a re-entry coordinator. The deputy district attorneys will assist with the case, trial and appellate backlog resulting from the pandemic. Additionally, one of the prosecutors will focus on domestic violence cases. We also will hire an administrative technician to review case filings and track data associated with arrest standards, use of felony and misdemeanor summons, pre-trial releases, and the impact of these various policies on crime rates, compliance with pre-trial releases, and the rate of re-offense. The re-entry coordinator will work with our community partners on housing, behavioral health needs and other efforts for the successful reentry of offenders back into the community, with the overarching goal of lowering Colorado’s high rate of re-offense.

District Attorney Michael Dougherty stated, “With no cost to Boulder County, this grant award will help improve our response to the overall case backlog, the rise in domestic violence cases, and other impacts of the pandemic. We are living through a ‘forced experiment’, but we can use this experience to identify lessons learned from the pandemic, including any positive adaptations that might be carried forward for the years ahead. I am pleased that we secured additional resources to help our staff and this community.”

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