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, March 19, 2012

CSP II Closing!

Pueblo Chieftain

State to close high-security prison

Posted: Monday, March 19, 2012 3:12 pm | Updated: 3:50 pm, Mon Mar 19, 2012.
The high-security Colorado State Penitentiary II will close in February 2013, the state Department of Corrections announced today.
The prison opened in 2010.
The prison, which has 316 beds, employs 256 full-time workers, DOC Director Tom Clements said in a press release.
“Of those employees, 213 will be reassigned to vacant DOC positions within Fremont County,” the press release stated. “Forty-two employees will keep their jobs” at the prison, which provides laundry, food and other services to other DOC facilities."
Clements said the closure was due to shrinking inmate populations and other factors.
“From a peak of 23,220 inmates in July 2009, the total inmate population has fallen to 21,562 at the end of February 2012,” the press release stated. “The Division of Criminal Justice has projected that the offender population will decline by an additional 905 offenders by June 30 2013.”
A meeting on the closure will be held Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the DOC Training Academy in Canon City.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just another expensive mistake by Ari Zavarus, the former DOC director who fought this waste of tax money to be built. Originally to cost $100M, ended up costing $205M to build. We must eliminate the 213 jobs. mpc