EDITORIAL: Bad news from Adams County jail officials serves as good news for those backing a City and County of Aurora

For those looking for good reasons for Aurora to pursue forming a city-county government, the continuing budget problem in the Adams County jail provides excellent fodder.
For the past couple of years, Adams County Sheriff Doug Darr has limited the number of prison beds for Aurora and other municipalities because his department hasn’t had the money to properly staff the jail.
In Darr’s defense, the budget problem was handed to him by Adams County commissioners, who dole out the money for the jail. While those Aurora criminals convicted of crimes by district and county courts serve out at least most of their jail times, and the most serious offenders go to state prison, the county has severely limited jail time for criminals convicted in city courts.
That’s bad news for Aurora because this city enacted laws years ago to ensure crimes like car theft and domestic violence were handled locally to make sure criminals were rightfully punished.
About 20 years ago, Aurora officials realized that the way county courts handled domestic violence cases did little to prevent future incidences of domestic violence. City officials put their own domestic violence laws on the books, allowing local courts to hear the cases, instead of sending them to county courts.
It was a big change, which led to local judges sending huge percentages of domestic violence convicts to jail. County courts at the time had a habit of letting them out, or holding them for just a few hours. City officials were able to show that keeping abusive spouses in jail for at least a few days reduced repeat offenses.
Since then, local judges have looked long and hard at the criminal history of those who come before the courts, selectively sending many repeat offenders or especially malicious criminals to jail.
One example of how effective this can be is in regards to car theft. Whereas most local courts and even county courts treat car theft as if it were nothing more than shoplifting, Aurora judges have been quick to send even first-time thieves to jail. The result, police say, is that Aurora has fewer car thefts than neighboring jurisdictions.
By dismissing those convicted in city courts as scofflaws and jaywalkers, Adams County undermines Aurora’s criminal justice system, and there isn’t one thing the city can do about it.
While county commissioners have worked to restore funding the jail, it could be months or even years before the facility has trained deputies and a fully functioning system again. Aurora has shown countless times that being able to control its own justice system benefits everyone. When examining whether to push ahead for a city-county government similar to Denver’s, this jail-time conundrum should serve as Exhibit A.