Baca County

Baca County follows Colorado law on arrests, release, and courts. These rules are the same in every county in the state; the full set covers prosecutors, defense, and jails too.

Who decides release first

Before any individual bond decision, the jail may release a person under local pretrial release policies or the judicial district's bond schedule, which must account for the person's circumstances and not only the charge. Then a judge, magistrate, or bond hearing officer holds a bond hearing and enters an individual bond order.

C.R.S. 16-4-102C.R.S. 16-4-103C.R.S. 16-4-113

Time to see a judge

A person held in custody must be brought before a court for a bond hearing as soon as practicable and no later than 48 hours after arriving at the jail. Court closures for emergencies, or a person who refuses or is unable to attend, can extend that.

C.R.S. 16-4-102(2)(a)

Money bail

Colorado limits money bail. A court may not set a money condition for traffic or petty offenses, or for city ordinance violations with no matching state misdemeanor. Courts must presume people are eligible for release on the least restrictive conditions, and any bond schedule must weigh the person's own risk and circumstances.

C.R.S. 16-4-113C.R.S. 16-4-103

Courts

District courts try felonies. County courts share jurisdiction over misdemeanors and petty offenses, issue warrants, hold preliminary hearings, and set bail in felony and misdemeanor cases. City municipal courts, which are not part of the state courts, hear city ordinance cases.

C.R.S. 13-6-106Colorado Legislative Council Staff, Issue Brief on judicial retention elections (2018)

Judges and magistrates

A nominating commission in each judicial district sends two or three names to the governor, who appoints district and county judges; the mayor appoints Denver County Court judges. After a two-year provisional term, judges face retention elections, then serve six years in district court or four years in county court. County judges in the smaller Class C and D counties need not be lawyers.

Colorado Legislative Council Staff, Issue Brief on judicial retention elections (2018)Colorado Judicial Institute, Explainer: How are judges selected in Colorado?C.R.S. 13-6-203

Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. Some of this is medium confidence and still being checked. Statutes were read through colorado.public.law, a mirror of the official code current through fall 2025. Whether bond hearing officers must be lawyers was not found. The constitution (art. II, sec. 19) lets courts deny bail for capital offenses and some violent cases; not re-read. The CPAT county list is from 2017.

Pretrial practice

A 2017 survey found pretrial supervision by the probation department.

Colorado Criminal Defense Institute, Colorado Pretrial Services Data Collection, presented to the CCJJ Pretrial Release Task Force (October 2017)

• Baca County Sheriff's OfficeCounty1,542 served
• Springfield Police DepartmentSpringfield town1,292 served
• Walsh Police DepartmentCity511 served
• CO0050200City107 served
• CO0050300City96 served

Agencies: FBI NIBRS master file 2025 batch headers; names from the FBI agency list, pulled 2026-09-29. An agency that serves several counties appears on each. Population served is the FBI's figure.