CSP II Gettin Closer - But Can It Be Staffed?

Groundbreaking is near for the long-awaited Colorado State Penitentiary II and the project is in the bid process, Rep. Buffie McFadyen told a handful of citizens Saturday.

“We’re just waiting for the final piece of funding,” McFadyen said during the Cañon City Chamber of Commerce Legislative Hour. “It has gone out to bid, so it is in the process.” McFadyen, one of the six members of the Colorado General Assembly Capital Development Committee, said the CSP II is four years behind but is scheduled to be completed by late 2009 or early 2010.

“What worries me is I’m not quite sure how we’re going to staff it,” McFadyen said. She noted although funding nearly is complete for construction, it is not yet in place for employment at the facility.

That apparently contradictory set of facts forced McFadyen to look beyond the simple construction of a new prison.

“We as a legislature really need to sit back and evaluate the costs of incarceration,” she said.

“We are now sending inmates to Oklahoma,” said McFadyen, who said private prisons are not the solution to the corrections crunch facing Colorado. She admitted she has a “disdain” for private prisons.

Canon City Daily Record