A bill was introduced Wednesday by Colorado lawmakers – including Durango-based House District 59 Rep. Katie Stewart – meant to address gaps in jail safety policies that have allowed sexual violence and abuse of power to occur in jail environments.
The bill, HB26-1123, Prevent Sexual Abuse in Jails, was created in response to rising cases of sexual assault and abuse in Colorado jails – including the case involving a former La Plata County Jail commander, according to the bill and Stewart.
Former Cmdr. Ed Aber is accused of using his administrative access to evidence.com to watch strip-search videos – which depicted “close-up vantage points of the intimate parts of at least 117 female inmates” – more than 3,000 times between Feb. 14, 2019, and Jan. 14, 2024, according to an arrest affidavit.
The former commander faces 117 counts of invasion of privacy and one count of official misconduct – all misdemeanors.
Stewart said Aber’s case “100 percent” informed her desire to pursue the bill. She said multiple constituents in the district reached out saying they were victims.
“(The bill) will prevent this from happening to more people that are in custody, either awaiting trial or post-trial and serving some type of sentence,” she said in an interview with The Durango Herald. “We need to do better for Colorado.”
Six of the 100-plus alleged victims spoke with The Durango Herald in September, using words like “sick,” “angry” and “shocked” to describe the intrusion. Several said they foresee a long road to recovery ahead after the trauma they have endured.
Aber is scheduled for a plea hearing Feb. 23 at the La Plata County Courthouse following several postponements.
Rep. Javier Mabrey and Sens. Judy Amabile and Mike Weissman are sponsoring the bill alongside Stewart.
The bill would expand and tighten rules around strip searches by limiting video recording and access to footage, applying a reasonable-belief standard to all arrests, requiring reasonable belief confirmation by two officers and mandating detailed documentation of all strip searches.
The bill would also require detention facilities to adopt sexual abuse reporting and prisoner notification policies, would protect staff who report abuse, establish legislative auditing and The Prison Rape Elimination Act compliance reviews, and remove the certification of officers who have sexually abused prisoners.
The Prison Rape Elimination Act, meant to improve protections for incarcerated people and reduce sexual violence, was passed by U.S. Congress in 2003. Though the act has contributed to better conditions for incarcerated individuals, policy gaps remain.
According to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2020 there were 8,628 reports of staff sexual misconduct, 7,449 reports of staff sexual harassment, 6,370 reports of nonconsensual sexual acts and 4,496 reports of abusive sexual contact in jails.
Stewart said the lack of strip-search data available in county jails was another driving force behind pursuing the bill.
She submitted two separate research requests with the Office of Legislative Services beginning in the summer of 2025 that asked how often strip searches occur at county jails, she said – and no data could be found.
“County jails are not, for whatever reason, documenting when strip searches are happening,” she said. “How can we do better with policy when we don't have any data to build off of?”
The Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault expressed its support for the bill in the release.
“Sexual violence and violations of bodily autonomy pose an urgent threat to the rights, dignity and safety of people held in our state’s jails,” said Elizabeth Newman, director of Public Policy at Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault. “Colorado has a responsibility to do more to prevent this.”
The bill, which was assigned to the House Judiciary Committee and is currently under consideration, has garnered a “broad coalition of support,” according to CCASA.
epond@durangoherald.com
