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Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

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Saturday, July 14, 2007

"Landing" in Prison

Paratroopers landed in a cornfield inside the Fremont Correctional Facility about 5 a.m. in the morning.

A routine military exercise nearly ended in disaster when paratroopers accidentally landed inside a prison complex outside Cañon City this week.

Approximately 25 paratroopers armed with exercise rifles that shoot rubber bullets sailed into a corn field just east of Fremont Correctional Facility early Thursday, one of six prison facilities that comprise the East Cañon Correctional Complex, said Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti.

She said the complex ranges from minimum-security facilities to ones that house the most dangerous criminals.

The paratroopers, who landed within the perimeter of the prison complex about 5 a.m. Thursday, were escorted off the prison grounds by correctional facility personnel.

"At this time we are launching an investigation to see if our personnel followed the proper procedures," said Sanguinetti. "It appears they handled the incident exactly as they should have."

Sanguinetti said she did not know which branch of the military was conducting the exercise. Area Air Force bases, Fort Carson and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs denied having any knowledge of the exercise. The Colorado National Guard did not respond to requests for information about their possible involvement.


Rocky Mountain News

3 comments:

Andrew Oh-Willeke said...

All's well that ends well, but damn, that could have gone horribly bad. It's like something out of a movie, fortunately this time, a comedy, rather than a tragedy or a drama.

Anonymous said...

Our bumbling Black Ops can't keep a secret...Now they have disclosed the approximate location of our government's secret base in Colorado...

Anonymous said...

The rumor I heard was that these were employees of a contractor working in Iraq (Blackwater or one of those) training.