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.


Saturday, September 01, 2007

Ground Breaking On CSP II

Well, they broke ground on CSP II yesterday and of course they blamed our lawsuit against the state for the extra money it's going to cost them to build the facility. The problem is that DOC contends that they need this new prison because the prison population continues to grow. Not true according to DOC's website. We actually have a drop in prison population this year. I don't know if it's strong enough to be called a trend, but they were predicting that there would be 100 person a month increase this year, while in reality the population is at minus 42 a month. So there goes that theory. It's not that we have large numbers of behavior problems in our prison system. When we put someone in CSP for a behavior incident, we leave them there. 23 hours a day seven days a week 365 days a year; and we leave them there for years.

C

ANON CITY - Lola Spradley was on hand Friday to witness one of the toughest challenges of her 2003 legislative session come to fruition as Colorado Department of Corrections broke ground on a $162 million prison.

Spradley, a former state representative and speaker of the House, said the bill that was designed to fund the Colorado State Penitentiary II through certificates of participation, was difficult to pass yet she stuck with it "for the right reasons and the right causes. It is very important to this state and to this county.

"It is so needed for those of you who daily serve for the safety and security of the public to be able to put offenders in an environment where everyone around them is safe," Spradley said.

The administrative maximum security prison was OK'd by the Legislature and then-Gov. Bill Owens in 2003 at a cost of $102 million, but a lawsuit delayed the construction, driving the price up.

"The lawsuit was kind of a tragic thing for the state," said Ari Zavaras, DOC executive director. "If it had gone in 2003 it would have saved the state a lot of money."Pueblo Chieftain

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am thoroughly disgusted with the Colorado D.O.C. and their delusional view of the "justice" system. What Zavaras had to say proves that he lacks sensitivity to the barbaric "justice" (just-us) corporations. This is very disturbing. I once had faith that he would make constructive changes in the archaic private prison abuses. It appears these D.O.C. folks, ALL of them, are simply in it FOR THE MONEY.

This is beyond disgusting. Cold. Zavari$ = Owen$.

Governor Ritter?!?! Ultimately responsible.

Ca$h rule$.

Mr. Zavaras, you are out of line - especially when it comes to the profiteering of private pri$on$.

I can only imagine what Bill Ritter'$ $tance i$ on the$e i$$ue$. He has NO intention of making corrections in the department of correction$.

Heartle$$. $elf-$erving. Not to be forgiven.

Anonymous said...

if anyone realy thought there was a change of heart by our state officals or department of corrections officals you were badly mistaken,its big business to build and staff these facilites and it supports a whole mentality of lock them up and toss away the key ,they profit and the prisoners suffer it will never change...

Anonymous said...

It is all lip service from Governor Ritter and Zabaris. The best way to help the public is not to just throw away the key and forget those locked up. A large number of those inmates will be coming back out in society. Those millions of dollars could be better spent on education and therapy and transitional help for the return into society. Many of these people can be helped. Stop looking at the money to be made and take a human approach to finding a better fix.