2023 Colorado Revised Statutes › Title 17 - CORRECTIONS (§§ 17-1-101 — 17-42-105) › DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS (§§ 17-1-101 — 17-10-106) › ORGANIZATION (§§ 17-1-101 — 17-1-207) › Article 1 - DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS (§§ 17-1-101 — 17-1-207) › Part 1 - CORRECTIONS ADMINISTRATION (§§ 17-1-101 — 17-1-168) › Section 17-1-102 - Definitions

As used in this title 17, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1) and (1.3)
(Deleted by amendment, L. 93, p. 404, § 1, effective April 19, 1993.)
(1.7)
"Correctional facility" means any facility under the supervision of the department in which persons are or may be lawfully held in custody as a result of conviction of a crime.
(2)
"Department" means the department of corrections.
(3)
(Deleted by amendment, L. 94, p. 602, § 2, effective July 1, 1994.)
(4)
"Executive director" means the executive director of the department of corrections.
(5) and (6)
(Deleted by amendment, L. 2000, p. 829, § 2, effective May 24, 2000.)
(6.5)
"Inmate" means any person who is sentenced to a term of imprisonment for a violation of the laws of this state, any other state, or the United States.
(6.7)
"Inmate liaison" means an inmate's family member or attorney, a government agency, or a representative from an organization with experience in helping inmates apply for special needs parole, high-needs prerelease planning, or reentry. The organization must be in good standing with the Colorado secretary of state for the past twelve consecutive months and the organization's involvement must be at the request of the inmate, or an inmate's family member or attorney should the inmate be unable to make the request.
(7)
"Local jail" means a jail or an adult detention center of a county or city and county.
(7.3)
"Private contract prison" means any private prison facility in this state operated by a political subdivision of this state or an incorporated or unincorporated business entity; except that "private contract prison" does not include any local jail, multijurisdictional jail, or community corrections center.
(7.4)
"Serious impairment that limits a person's ability to function" means a medically diagnosed physical or mental condition that is chronic and long term in nature and severely limits a person's ability to independently perform essential day-to-day activities without daily intervention, attention, or support from an inmate aide or professional caregiver.
(7.5)
(a)
"Special needs offender" means a person in the custody of the department:
(I)
Who is fifty-five years of age or older and has been diagnosed by a licensed health-care provider who is employed by or under contract with the department or by a private licensed health-care provider involved in providing patient care to the inmate as suffering from a chronic infirmity, illness, condition, disease, or behavioral or mental health disorder that causes serious impairment that limits the person's ability to function;
(II)
Who, as determined by a licensed health-care provider who is employed by or under contract with the department or by a private licensed health-care provider involved in providing patient care to the inmate, suffers from a chronic, permanent, terminal, or irreversible physical illness, condition, disease, or a behavioral or mental health disorder that requires costly care or treatment and who is incapacitated;
(III)
Who is sixty-four years of age or older and has served at least twenty years of the person's sentence and was not convicted of a class 1 or class 2 felony for a crime as defined in section
24-4.1-302 (1)
, unlawful sexual behavior as defined in section
16-22-102 (9)
, a crime that includes domestic violence as defined in section
18-6-800.3 (1)
, or stalking as described in section
18-3-602
; or
(IV)
Who, as determined by a licensed health-care provider who is employed by or under contract with the department or a competency evaluator as defined in section
16-8.5-101 (3)
and approved by the department of human services, on the basis of available evidence, not including evidence resulting from a refusal of the person to accept treatment, is incompetent to proceed and does not have a substantial probability of being restored to competency for the completion of any sentence including a person who has been diagnosed with dementia that renders the person incompetent to proceed. As used in this subsection (7.5)(a)(IV), "competency" has the same meaning as "competent to proceed", as defined in section
16-8.5-101 (5)
, and "incompetent to proceed" has the same meaning as defined in section
16-8.5-101 (12)
.
(b)
(I)
Notwithstanding subsection (7.5)(a) of this section, "special needs offender" does not include a person who:
(A)
Was convicted of a class 1 felony and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole and the offender has served fewer than twenty calendar years in a department of corrections facility for the offense;
(B)
Was convicted of a class 1 felony and sentenced to life without parole; or
(C)
Was convicted of a class 2 felony crime of violence as described in section
18-1.3-406
and the offender has served fewer than ten calendar years in a department of corrections facility for the offense.
(II)
This subsection (7.5)(b) does not apply to an inmate who has been diagnosed as having a terminal illness with an anticipated life expectancy of twelve months or less by a licensed health-care provider who is employed by or under contract with the department or by a private licensed health-care provider involved in providing patient care to the inmate.
(8)
"State inmate" means any person who is sentenced by the state to a term of imprisonment in a correctional facility or who is sentenced to a term of imprisonment pursuant to section
16-11-308.5
, C.R.S.
(8.5)
"Tampering" means intentionally attempting to disable, damage, or destroy an electronic monitoring device so as to render the device nonfunctional in order to avoid supervision.
(9)
"Warden" means the administrative head of a correctional facility.
Amended by 2021 Ch. 459, § 1, eff. 7/6/2021.
Amended by 2020 Ch. 9, § 1, eff. 3/6/2020.
Amended by 2019 Ch. 227, § 18, eff. 7/1/2019.
Amended by 2018 Ch. 139, § 1, eff. 4/23/2018.
Amended by 2017 Ch. 263, § 128, eff. 5/25/2017.
Amended by 2014 Ch. 199, § 1, eff. 5/15/2014.
L. 77: Entire title R&RE, p. 904, § 10, effective August 1. L. 79: Entire section R&RE, p. 685, § 21, effective July 1. L. 91: (1) amended and (1.3), (1.7), and (5) to (8) added, p. 336, § 1, effective May 24. L. 93: (1), (1.3), and (7) amended, p. 404, § 1, effective April 19. L. 94: (3) amended and (9) added, p. 602, § 2, effective July 1. L. 2000: (5), (6), (8), and (9) amended and (6.5) and (7.3) added, p. 829, § 2, effective May 24; (7.5) added, p. 1495, § 1, effective 7/1/2001. L. 2002: (7.5)(b)(II) and (7.5)(b)(III) amended, p. 1499, § 156, effective October 1. L. 2003: (7.5)(a) amended, p. 1910, § 1, effective August 6. L. 2006: (7.5)(a)(I) amended, p. 1398, § 44, effective August 7. L. 2011: (7.5) amended, (SB 11-241), ch. 831, p. 831, § 1, effective May 23. L. 2014: (8.5) added, (HB 14-1044), ch. 727, p. 727, § 1, effective May 15. L. 2017: IP, (7.5)(a)(I), and (7.5)(a)(II) amended, (SB 17-242), ch. 1301, p. 1301, § 128, effective May 25. L. 2018: (7.5)(a)(I) and (7.5)(a)(II) amended and (7.5)(a)(IV) added, (HB 18-1109), ch. 912, p. 912, § 1, effective April 23. L. 2019: (7.5)(a)(IV) amended, (SB 19-223), ch. 2292, p. 2292, § 18, effective July 1. L. 2020: (7.3) amended, (HB 20 -1019), ch. 23, p. 23, § 1, effective March 6. L. 2021: (6.7) and (7.4) added and (7.5) amended, (SB 21-146), ch. 3076, p. 3076, § 1, effective July 6.
For the legislative declaration contained in the 2002 act amending subsections (7.5)(b)(II) and (7.5)(b)(III), see section 1 of chapter 318, Session Laws of Colorado 2002. For the legislative declaration in SB 17-242, see section 1 of chapter 263, Session Laws of Colorado 2017.