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, November 05, 2007

Still Not Enough Space?

All we have to do is find alternatives that create solutions for people who are failing on probation and parole. That does a lot to slow growth on both the front end and the back end. We are not talking about huge numbers either. Last year the DOC projected a growth of 100 people a month. Because they started to change the way that they did a few things we have slowed that to 20 a month. It doesn't take much to bring us to zero growth.

DENVER - With 948 new prison beds expected to come online at the new Colorado State Penitentiary II in the next two years, and more double-bunking at existing facilities, the state still expects to come up short on inmate space.

According to long-term projections, the Colorado Department of Corrections is expected to see an increase of anywhere between 4,000 and 7,000 new prisoners in the next four years, depending on whose projections are used.

But the department is only expecting about 2,000 new beds to become available over the next two years.

DOC and state lawmakers are still trying to work out how do deal with the space problems, and are hoping that double-bunking existing facilities, increasing parole rates, finding alternative sentencing and reducing recidivism will help.

"Hopefully, we have at least stabilized some of the growth in the Department of Corrections, and are not seeing some of the spikes (in inmate population) that we have been," said Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, and a member of the Legislature's Capital Development Committee that reviews new construction projects. "It takes awhile for a reduction in recidivism. There isn't an immediate success."

The DOC currently is projecting that the state's prison population will reach about 27,000 by 2011. The Legislative Council, the research arm of the Colorado General Assembly, is more pessimistic, saying it could get as high as 29,500 by then.

Currently, there are more than 22,500 inmates in the state's 28 public and private facilities, including county jails.

"We had a month during this summer when we actually had a net loss of about 30, which is the first time in a long time we've done that," McFadyen said. "But if we were to actually expand bed space, the logical expansion would be to Trinidad. They already have the footprint that's already there and the design and the capability."

In addition to CSPII, construction for which is to start next month, two of the state's five private prisons are in the midst of construction projects that will nearly double their space: Bent County Correctional Facility near Las Animas is going from 700 beds to 1,420, while Kit Carson Correctional Center outside of Burlington is expanding from a 765-bed facility to one with 1,485 beds, according to DOC spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti.

Other than the Canon City penitentiary, the only other new construction in a state-run facility is going on at the Denver Reception & Diagnostic Center, which processes all state inmates. That 480-bed center is adding space for 62 more prisoners, who usually don't stay there more than a month.

Gov. Bill Ritter and DOC Executive Director Ari Zavaras also are hoping to slow the need for additional beds through a reduction in inmates returning to prison, but there's no way to know what effect those programs will have over time.

Current recidivism rates have reached 50 percent one to three years after an inmate leaves the system, according to DOC statistics. That translates to about 3,000 inmates returning to prison within three years of being released.

Ritter's spokesman, Evan Dreyer, said it's not likely programs that reduce offenders returning to prison, or going there in the first place, will solve the problem, primarily because the state's population continues to go up.

"On a pure numerical formula, the answer is no. Can we control it? Can we do more to keep offenders from returning once they have been punished? Yes, we absolutely can," he said.

"The priorities and the goals revolve around keeping people safe in their communities and keeping offenders from returning to prison after they're released. If we're able to accomplish that, we reduce the number of victims; we're able to reduce the number of beds in state prisons, and we save taxpayer money. That's what Governor Ritter has been driving for since the day he took office, devising programs that address all of those goals."


Pueblo Chieftain

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

what a big joke...they arent going to do anything for anybody but thier selfs,expect more prisons and more people returning to prison....

Anonymous said...

5
去年下半年以來的 酒店工作金融海嘯,不僅讓市井小民壓力沉重, 酒店上班就連專營高檔客層的精品商家,也都面臨不小的壓力, 寒假打工
甚至無力負擔商圈的房租,市場瀰漫著一股悲觀的氣氛。


隨著股市、房市 暑假打工的熱絡氣象,外界預期一些辛苦經營的精品店面、 酒店PT商圈,將順勢而起,不過,熟悉大台北商圈的欣元商仲總經理焦文華直言,目 禮服酒店前精品業者的經營還相當艱困,景氣反轉的力道並不如外界預期。


焦文華分析,精品商圈 兼差的經營,確實還是面臨消費力不足的困境。目前消費者物價指數已連續兩個月負成長(六、七月份),具體反映出消費力衰退的現象,高檔的珠寶、手錶、服飾等精品市場感受更深,部分店家業績 打工,更是過去高峰期的三分之一,業者稱得上是「苦撐待變」。


永慶店面事業部 台北酒店經紀經理李元鳳表示,精品商圈在金融海 酒店經紀嘯中確實面臨很大的壓力,且當時都無法預期景氣何時好轉 酒店打工,耗費數百萬元的裝潢成本,更迫使業者無法輕言放棄。以當時的天母SOGO商圈為例,就算距離天母SOG 酒店兼差O百貨的開幕已經不到半年的時間,但周邊店面的空置率仍高達二十%,顯示屋主與業者都存有濃厚的觀望心態,這 酒店兼職與過去市場會提前反映利多現象有顯著差異。


雖然精品業者辛苦經營,但是從喝花酒永慶店面事業部的統計數據來看,五大精品商圈的空置率在今年上半年皆有明顯下降,但是積極展店的業種,卻是以餐飲、零售等微利事業體,精品商圈交際應酬的「精品氣氛」,已逐漸稀釋。


不僅精品商圈的味道變了,過去勇於投資精品商圈的粉味投資客,追價的力道同樣大不如前。李元鳳表示,以台北市最廣為人知的「晶華酒店商圈」為例酒店喝酒,售價從二○○八年曾出現的每坪三百萬元的高檔價格,到今年平均一百八十萬至兩百五十萬元的水準,雖然店租行情波動不大,但也反映出目前買方出價的「保守」。


徐佳馨表示,從空置率數據來看,與去年狀況極差的第四季相比 酒店,精品商圈的空置率都出現明顯的下降,但由於各界對於景氣是否反彈仍有疑慮,因此就算租金與售價已開始蠢動,但是否能夠真實反映市場實況,仍存有許多變數。