Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

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.

If you would like to be involved please go to our website and become a member.


Monday, August 06, 2007

Prison Spending Or Anything Else....

This year the legislature created the Colorado Criminal and Juvenile Justice Commission, tasked with examining the state’s sentencing structure and making recommendations to the legislature to address the ever-increasing prison.

But if lawmakers lack the will to actually act on sentencing, then the commission will be largely irrelevant, and Colorado taxpayers will be on the hook for a long-term — and hugely expensive — prison expansion project.

Colorado’s current prison population is over 22,500 inmates, and all available prison capacity is full. In 2006, there were just over 10,000 admissions and just under 9,000 releases from Colorado prisons. So Colorado had a net gain of over a thousand inmates. This in turn requires Colorado to build, lease or otherwise find and pay for a thousand new beds to house them.

No end in sight

This is only going to continue.

Prison population projections by the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice and the Legislative Council Staff average out to around 29,000 inmates by 2012.

But even if the state started building today, by 2012 Colorado would be in the same position as now — prisons full and more needed — because expansion plans are only pacing, and not exceeding, prison population growth. In other words, if the legislature does nothing but appropriate more money, the 1,000-bed-per-year scenario simply continues as far as the eye can see.

It costs around $100,000 to build one new prison bed and another $28,000 in annual operations money. So Colorado is looking at hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending for prisons.


the denver daily

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why not spend a portion of that money addressing the recidivism issue and save in the long run?

Anonymous said...

The governor and his wife had a good idea, to release non-violent drug offenders...those who are not sellers, just unfortunate victims, to drug rehab?
Unfortunately, the governor appears to be lying, as he is issuing debt for our grandchildren to pay for the new CSP II. He promised, but failed. His parole board chairman promised, but failed. They need to be recalled NOW.

Anonymous said...

can you realy ever believe a politician ???????

Anonymous said...

Lets face it folks, there is lots of money to be made by having so many in prison. Look at all the new industries that have been created over the last 30 years. Politicians create fear to justify more prisons. How many times a day do you hear the word "safe" or "for your safety"