Something Needs To Change

Leading lawyers look at the changing a system that has sent thousands of Colorado residents to prison.

Colorado prisons by the numbers

Costs

• Per prison bed: Between $40,000 and $90,000 to build

• To house an inmate: $26,000 annually

• Community corrections housing: $12,900 annually per inmate

Population

• 1985: 4,000

• 2005: 20,000

• 2009 (projected): 25,000

• Estimated need for new prison beds each year: 1,000

Department of Corrections budget

• 1985: $57 million

• 2005: $533 million

18 Colorado's national ranking for its state incarceration rate

438 Number of inmates per 100,000 residents in 2004

358,000 Number of U.S. prison inmates in 1970

2.3 million Number of U.S. inmates in 2004Source: Colorado Lawyers Committee

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5257854,00.html