Still Not Enough Space?

All we have to do is find alternatives that create solutions for people who are failing on probation and parole. That does a lot to slow growth on both the front end and the back end. We are not talking about huge numbers either. Last year the DOC projected a growth of 100 people a month. Because they started to change the way that they did a few things we have slowed that to 20 a month. It doesn't take much to bring us to zero growth.

DENVER - With 948 new prison beds expected to come online at the new Colorado State Penitentiary II in the next two years, and more double-bunking at existing facilities, the state still expects to come up short on inmate space.

According to long-term projections, the Colorado Department of Corrections is expected to see an increase of anywhere between 4,000 and 7,000 new prisoners in the next four years, depending on whose projections are used.

But the department is only expecting about 2,000 new beds to become available over the next two years.

DOC and state lawmakers are still trying to work out how do deal with the space problems, and are hoping that double-bunking existing facilities, increasing parole rates, finding alternative sentencing and reducing recidivism will help.

"Hopefully, we have at least stabilized some of the growth in the Department of Corrections, and are not seeing some of the spikes (in inmate population) that we have been," said Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, and a member of the Legislature's Capital Development Committee that reviews new construction projects. "It takes awhile for a reduction in recidivism. There isn't an immediate success."

The DOC currently is projecting that the state's prison population will reach about 27,000 by 2011. The Legislative Council, the research arm of the Colorado General Assembly, is more pessimistic, saying it could get as high as 29,500 by then.

Currently, there are more than 22,500 inmates in the state's 28 public and private facilities, including county jails.

"We had a month during this summer when we actually had a net loss of about 30, which is the first time in a long time we've done that," McFadyen said. "But if we were to actually expand bed space, the logical expansion would be to Trinidad. They already have the footprint that's already there and the design and the capability."

In addition to CSPII, construction for which is to start next month, two of the state's five private prisons are in the midst of construction projects that will nearly double their space: Bent County Correctional Facility near Las Animas is going from 700 beds to 1,420, while Kit Carson Correctional Center outside of Burlington is expanding from a 765-bed facility to one with 1,485 beds, according to DOC spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti.

Other than the Canon City penitentiary, the only other new construction in a state-run facility is going on at the Denver Reception & Diagnostic Center, which processes all state inmates. That 480-bed center is adding space for 62 more prisoners, who usually don't stay there more than a month.

Gov. Bill Ritter and DOC Executive Director Ari Zavaras also are hoping to slow the need for additional beds through a reduction in inmates returning to prison, but there's no way to know what effect those programs will have over time.

Current recidivism rates have reached 50 percent one to three years after an inmate leaves the system, according to DOC statistics. That translates to about 3,000 inmates returning to prison within three years of being released.

Ritter's spokesman, Evan Dreyer, said it's not likely programs that reduce offenders returning to prison, or going there in the first place, will solve the problem, primarily because the state's population continues to go up.

"On a pure numerical formula, the answer is no. Can we control it? Can we do more to keep offenders from returning once they have been punished? Yes, we absolutely can," he said.

"The priorities and the goals revolve around keeping people safe in their communities and keeping offenders from returning to prison after they're released. If we're able to accomplish that, we reduce the number of victims; we're able to reduce the number of beds in state prisons, and we save taxpayer money. That's what Governor Ritter has been driving for since the day he took office, devising programs that address all of those goals."

Pueblo Chieftain