Re-Entry Prison? Or, Just Prison....

One of CCJRC's members recently recounted his story about what things were like at The Cheyenne Mountain Re-Entry Center. The lack of qualified teachers, the violence, the drugs. As with any "flagship" facility you have to wonder if you are getting the real story, or just dressing up what's happening with smoke and mirrors. I will have the opportunity to print our members' letter here next week. For now, here is what the Colorado Springs Independent has uncovered.

The 18-month-old private facility houses around 500 inmates in a re-entry boot camp of sorts. Offenders spend hours each day in résumé-writing and life-skills classes meant to boost their chances on the outside and keep them from coming back.

Many residents see the facility at 2925 E. Las Vegas St. as the final stop before exiting prison. But they don't speak in dreamy absolutes about it, and the programs within don't guarantee they'll get out or stay out.

"I volunteered to come here, hoping I would be paroled," inmate David Randell said one day in January. "I was denied again for the third time. ... People are here for treatment, and it is not being used. For me, I am taking what I can, using tools, using the signs and trying to hang out with the positive guys."

"The fallacy is that you can designate a prison as a re-entry prison," says Christie Donner of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. "It is not in the community people are going to be released to, for the most part. They could be going anywhere. And re-entry is all about the specific opportunities you can access in the community where you are going."

Yet CMRC has taken quiet steps toward this goal, instigating what it calls the "Arapahoe Project," which will set up exiting offenders with jobs across the state. CMRC executive assistant Thomas McGuire did not disclose details, saying he "wouldn't want to venture a guess" as to when the project will launch.

CS INDY