CO HB1081

State court administrator must establish a court reminder program by January 1, 2019, to send text message reminders to criminal defendants about scheduled court appearances in county and district courts (excluding Denver County Court).

Program prioritizes text messages for defendants with texting capacity, but may also use phone calls, email, or internet-based technology when text messages are unavailable.

State court administrator must track failure-to-appear data starting September 1, 2018, and provide annual reports to legislative committees including reminder statistics, failure-to-appear rates, and program effectiveness metrics.

Local law enforcement, municipal courts, and the state public defender may voluntarily partner with the program; municipal courts must pay all costs associated with their participation.

Appropriates $40,000 from general fund and $194,208 from judicial department information technology cash fund for the 2018-19 fiscal year to implement the program.