Colorado Lawmakers Clash Over Prison Spending As State Budget Tightens

By Marianne Goodland | The Denver Gazette

The Polis administration is asking for hundreds of millions of dollars to expand the state’s prison system, just as Colorado’s legislators are bracing for a worsening fiscal outlook.

The request sets up a clash over priorities at a time when the state faces a nearly $1.5 billion shortfall.

The administration is seeking to add prison beds amid overcrowding, though advocates on both sides of the spectrum disagree over its cause. Some advocates have argued that the crisis is partly the result of a backlog of inmates awaiting parole placement. Others maintained that the “crisis” resulted from Democrats’ policies that ultimately seek to release offenders back into communities.

On Wednesday, the governor asked budget writers for money to fund one or possibly two new prisons to address the prison bed crisis.

In a March 18 letter, the Office of State Planning and Budgeting said the Department of Corrections will need a minimum five-year contract for additional prison beds, potentially using closed private prison facilities.

It would cost a minimum of $150 million to $200 million to buy and renovate one of those shuttered prisons, some of which have been mothballed for years, according to estimates.

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