AURORA | In the race to be the next sheriff in Adams County, Republican Michael McIntosh and Democrat Rick Reigenborn appear poised to face off this fall.
Based on preliminary results posted early Wednesday morning, Reigenborn was leading the Democratic primary over Larry Medina by a 51 percent to 48 percent margin. Reigenborn received 8,131 votes to Medina’s 7,648.
On the Republican side, McIntosh was leading Mark Nicastle by 51 percent to 48 percent. McIntosh received 8,710 votes to 8,076 for Nicastle.
For Aurora voters and local leaders, one of the bigger issues in the campaign will likely be outgoing sheriff Doug Darr’s controversial cap on the number of inmates the jail will accept from municipal courts. The policy has angered city officials in Aurora and other municipalities around the county who say turning away inmates from municipal courts puts dangerous offenders on the street. Darr has said the inmates are the lowest level offenders and because the jail staff is already stretched too thin, those low-risk inmates are the ones who should be kept from the jail.
As it is with Aurora officials, the jail cap isn’t popular among the successful primary candidates for sheriff.
McIntosh said the focus for the jail has to be on keeping dangerous criminals off the streets, whether they come from the municipal courts or not.
“Our goal has to be protecting those who are most vulnerable in our communities,” he said.
If he is elected, McIntosh said he would “immediately work toward removing the jail cap.”
Among the options that could alleviate crowding are more focus on supervised release programs, he said.
Reigenborn said he too opposes the cap. When voters around the county approved a new jail more than 20 years ago, Reigenborn said city voters expected the municipal courts to have all the access to it they need. The current cap goes back on that promise, he said.
“That wasn’t the agreement we made with the people 20 years ago when we built the jail,” he said.
Reigenborn said that if jail staffing issues made completely lifting the cap impossible, he would at least extend it beyond the current limit of 32 until a better solution could be worked out.
Over the past year, the jail has turned away 130 inmates from Aurora Municipal Court, according to the city’s statistics. The inmates were serving time for shoplifting, failure to obey a lawful order, motor vehicle theft, driving without insurance and theft.
While none of the inmates released early because of the cap have been arrested for committing new crimes, John Leavitt, a spokesman for the city, said officials expect that they will.
“To the best of our knowledge, none of the released prisoners have been rearrested since their forced early release. However, we anticipate continued criminal behavior from habitual, repeat offenders,” he said in an email.