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.


Wednesday, January 05, 2011

The Durango Herald 01/03/2011 | Colorado prisons shed inmates

The Durango Herald 01/03/2011 | Colorado prisons shed inmates

DENVER – The number of inmates in Colorado prisons is falling for the first time in years, and economists predict a steeper slide because of new state laws.

However, some previous forecasts have been off, and Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said the department is being cautious about the projections.

Since fiscal 1993, state prison populations rose from about 9,200 to about 23,000 in fiscal 2009, according to data from the Department of Corrections.

That fell 1.4 percent to 22,860 inmates as of last June. It was the first decline in years but still was short of the state Division of Criminal Justice’s projection for a 3.9 percent decline. The division said there were fewer discretionary parole releases than expected.

Legislative economists predicted in December that there would be just 21,058 inmates in June 2013 because of a combination of recent trends and new state laws. That would represent an average annual decrease of about 2.7 percent.

The Division of Criminal Justice predicts about 21,282 inmates in June 2013.

Sanguinetti expected the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee would scrutinize the numbers more this month because the projections help determine the department’s budget.

State officials have credited recidivism programs, slightly higher release rates, decisions by the parole board and fewer new court convictions for the decline in inmates.

Legislative economists said bills passed in 2010 to reduce penalties for certain repeat offenders and crimes will help shrink the prison population, along with bills addressing earned time and where parolees can be placed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its obvious the public wants non violent inmates released. Now why isnt the legislature and the DOC making this happen? To release people on parole makes sense. All the jockying around and the fancy costly studys do nothing for a simple fix. The public says git it done!!! djw

Anonymous said...

I believe that DOC needs to revamp their parole board. If a Prisoner has earned good time off his sentence then he should be released on his EPRD. The board should not be allowed to continue to set an inmate back for small things like they don't believe the inmate sorry for his crime or they think he isn't programming or he's getting over because he has no write ups! If parole is still discretionary then we shouldn't have mandatory parole. We changed the mandatory on the parole but not on the release onto parole!