A female prisoner in handcuffs at jail. (Getty Images)
Some Democrats in the state legislature oppose mandatory minimum sentencing, arguing that minorities are disproportionately incarcerated and that the law is duplicative.
Members of the Colorado Public Defender's Office and the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar have testified against it. A public defender handout argued the bill "is unnecessary because in most circumstances across Colorado, these crimes are charged concurrently with Human Trafficking."
Under the bill, offenses like soliciting, pandering and pimping a child would carry a minimum four-year prison term. Additionally, pandering involving intimidation would result in a minimum eight-year sentence.
On Feb. 15, more than 50 witnesses reportedly crowded a Colorado Capitol hearing room, with nearly all voicing support for the bill. Most were adult survivors recounting being sold into the sex trade as children, often by family or friends, some unaware of the buyers, according to a Colorado Politics report.
One of the survivors, Kelly Dore, testified that her father was given a sentence of less than one year for selling her in exchange for drugs for 14 years, beginning when she was just one year old. After he was released, he continued to victimize female members of her family, she said.
Since 2000, 55% of sex trafficking victims have been recruited online. (Human Trafficking Institute)
As such, the Denver Gazette Editorial Board reported that Colorado falls in the top 20 states for human sex trafficking and called the vote against harsher penalties "inconceivable."
"They sent a message that Colorado doesn’t care much about adults who use child prostitutes. Just as soft-on-crime drug laws have attracted drug dealers and traffickers, this will bring in people who sell children for sex and those who patronize them," the editorial board wrote.
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In a previous Fox News Digital article, Geoff Rogers, co-founder of the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking, said the U.S. "is the No. 1 consumer of sex worldwide."
"So, we are driving the demand as a society," he said.
Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate.
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