Colorado Budget Panel Rejects Prison Expansion Funding Until Plan Is Presented

By Bente Birkeland | The Colorado Sun

Democratic members of the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee denied a request Wednesday from the Colorado Department of Corrections for money to pay for additional prison beds. 

In a 4-2 vote, the Democrats on the JBC voted in a bloc to deny the dollars, complaining that the DOC lacked a plan to address the state’s growing prison population, despite repeated requests for Gov. Jared Polis’ administration to do so. The two Republicans on the panel voted to approve the ask.

“The frustration is that we are just at this point where it’s been repeated asks, year after year, and we’ve seen no movement,” said JBC Chair Emily Sirota, a Democratic state representative from Denver. 

Sirota said withholding the money, for the time being, is one way to put pressure on the department to at least come up with, if not a concrete plan, “a plan for a plan.” 

“Because what other mechanism do we have to get them to the table?” she said.

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