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.


Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Fatal Prison Riot Renews Call For Staffing

Lawmakers and guards predicted that a deadly riot like Sunday's racially motivated incident was likely to occur at the high-security U.S. Penitentiary in Florence because of deficiencies in staffing.

On Monday, Sen. Ken Salazar wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey renewing a 3-year-old request that the Department of Justice take action on staffing and security at the complex.

After two inmates were shot and killed Sunday by guards trying to stop a riot, Salazar also requested an independent report be conducted on security at the Florence campus by the Government Accountability Office.

"The incident this weekend demonstrates a continued pattern of violence that has been escalating over several years on the Florence campus, not only at the USP, but at the Supermax as well," Salazar wrote in his letter to Mukasey.

State Rep. Buffie McFadyen, who represents Florence, said that there needs to be an analysis of what caused the riot to keep something like it from happening again and that crowding throughout the federal prison system has become a serious problem.


The Denver Post

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If this is a federal prison, why is Rep McFayden worried about staffing of the prison. seems to me its a federal problem????
Also why are guards sitting in a tower shooting at inmates contained behind prison walls and razor wire???