Town Hall Tips
1. Find a Town Hall Near You
Enter your address to find the name of your state senator or rep.
Once you have their name, go to their website or Facebook page, then to their event or calendar section and look for public meetings, which are often called “town halls” or “district meetings”.
When you find one, DM us on twitter or email us and we’ll add it to the site and tweet it out.
2. Ask your legislators to support criminal justice reform and pre-trial reform to protect our most vulnerable neighbors.
Identify who you are. Identify as a constituent with your name and zip code. You can also include identities like LGBTQ, Black, parent, student, voter, social worker, survivor of crime etc.
State your issue. Our issue is legislation to end pre-trial detention, cash bail, and the harms of the criminal legal system. Examples:
If we want to make our communities safer, we need accessibility and affordability for mental health and substance use disorder treatment, and harm reduction options—not arrest and incarceration, which only exacerbate these issues.
We need bills this session that will protect vulnerable Coloradans like Michael Marshall, Marvin Booker, Karen Garner, and Elijah McClain.
Arresting and jailing people for poverty crime does not make us safer. We need services, not cells for our most vulnerable neighbors.
Explain why you care and/or how you are impacted. Share your personal story and/or any facts.
Make the ask. Use a close-ended question to ask for your legislator Example: “Will you commit to supporting criminal justice reform bills this session to protect our most vulnerable neighbors from our harmful carceral system?”
3. Let us know you’re attending
Let us know if you’re attending a town hall to ask your legislator if they’ll support bills to end cash bail and over-policing in Colorado. We’ll follow up with an email asking you how the town hall went and how your legislator responded so we can better focus our efforts.