State Triggers Emergency Prison Measures Due to Overcrowding

By Marissa Ventrelli | The Gazette

Ongoing issues within the Colorado Department of Corrections have prompted the state to trigger its Prison Population Management Measures — a policy framework established in 2018 to address overcrowding. It marks the first time the measures have been put into effect.

Under the law, the governor must implement the management measures if the state’s prison vacancy rate stays below 3% for 30 consecutive days, a threshold that was met on Aug. 16.

The issue of overcrowding in the state correctional facilities has been a growing concern for months, with county sheriffs sounding the alarm in May over the shortage of prison beds, leading to increased strain on local jails.

Facing a budget shortfall of over $1 billion, state lawmakers this year made the decision to eliminate about 300 beds from corrections’ facilities. While funding was approved to reopen 100 of those beds starting in July, law enforcement and criminal justice reform advocates argue it won’t be nearly enough to address the backlog.

While the PPMM will help to alleviate some of the pressure on DOC by allowing for the early release of certain eligible inmates, there’s a possibility that DOC could be looking to build a new prison, despite the fact that the state is still reeling from the impacts of federal funding cuts and a $1 billion hole in its own budget.

‘We are sending people back to prison who are not dangerous‘

Kyle Giddings, executive director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, believes there are several reasons why the state’s correctional facilities are seeing their lowest vacancy rates in years, but argues that one of the top contributors are technical parole violations.

According to the coalition, the number of people who have been incarcerated for technical parole violations — non-criminal infractions that violate parole conditions, such as failing a drug test or missing an appointment with a parole officer — has increased by 20%.

“We are sending people back to prison who are not dangerous,” said Sen. Judy Amabile, D-Boulder, a leading voice on criminal justice reform in the legislature and a member of the Joint Budget Committee. “There’s a wide variety of technical parole violations, but sometimes they can be really inconsequential things, and people still end up back in DOC.”

Giddings believes the rise in incarcerations for technical parole violations is due to an increased desire among law enforcement to appear “tough on crime” amid widespread reports that Colorado is one of the least-safe states in the country.

“There’s always been consequences for technical parole violations, but seeing this many people go back is pretty crazy,” he said.

When asked to comment on the increase in jail time for technical parole violations, DOC spokesperson Alondra Gonzalez sent the following statement: “A TPV is a violation of the specific conditions of parole supervision, which are ordered to protect public safety and support an individual’s successful reentry.

Incarceration for a TPV is not an automatic outcome and is used as a last resort after a series of graduated sanctions have been ineffective. State law  requires parole officers to make an arrest and file a complaint with the Parole Board for certain high-risk violations, such as absconding from supervision or tampering with a GPS. In those cases, parole officers have no discretion. Even then, the final decision to revoke parole and return someone to prison is made by the Colorado Board of Parole after a formal hearing.”

Gonzalez also said technical parole violations actually “remain below historical highs,” referencing numbers from 2024, when about 0.9% of the total DOC population under parole supervision were incarcerated for a technical parole violation.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE GAZETTE