Polis pushes for new prison as critics question Colorado spending priorities

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project

Does Colorado need to open (or build) a new prison?

Governor Polis’ office seems to think so. Per the Sun article linked at bottom (quoted with links left intact):

“Gov. Jared Polis’ office told state lawmakers Wednesday that Colorado must immediately move to open a new prison to handle projected growth in inmate numbers, a revelation that comes as the legislature is cutting social services to address a $1 billion state budget shortfall and despite the General Assembly’s pushback on much smaller funding requests for more beds at existing prisons.”

Given what I’d seen before about asking for more beds, I’m betting wanting a whole new prison made some jaws drop alright.

I’ll leave it to you to read the article in full but what was notable to me were the reactions of the Democrats on the state’s Joint Budget Committee. The reactions were NOT (as you might imagine they wouldn’t be) talking about what cuts in existing programs could help either open one of the state’s existing-but-shuttered prisons or build a new one, they fell along the lines of “we can’t open more prisons now when the budget is in crisis!”*

The other thing of note to me was the shift in tone by the progressive reporters at the Sun.** Another quote (likewise with links intact):

“The news was met with incredulity from the JBC, which has been reeling in recent weeks as it cuts Medicaid and other state services to address a gap between how much money it has to spend and the cost of continuing current state programs.”

I could swear that sentence reads like actual reporting, not editorializing about TABOR. I say that because, yes, that is a big part of the problem: we’ve put our money into a whole lot of things we don’t need, need in the way you would say we need non-crumbling roads/bridges or need public safety.

To repeat a metaphor I’ve leaned on in the past, instead of monitoring the state of the appliances that heat our water or heat our home, we’ve been buying “Live Laugh Love” signs for the living room and then we end up with our butts in a crack when the furnace catches us unawares one cold morning by not working. We spent money updating our linens every 6 months while not paying attention to the car that gets us back and forth to our job.

From what I can tell in the article, the solution many of the Democrats on the Joint Budget Committee will look to (as well as an advocacy group which was quoted) will be reducing the need for prison beds instead of building a new prison. I’m sure this will have no unintended consequences.

One of the existing bills mentioned which some of the progressive legislators hope will not only lower the prison population, but soothe their guilty consciences for ever daring to punish someone for a crime is SB26-036, a bill I have written about before (see the second link below to that newsletter).

There was mention of Senator Weissman running another bill (he’s already on SB26-036) to further lower the bar for parole.

I will keep an eye on Weismann to see if he makes good on this claim. I will update as I see something worth sharing.

*The article hints about this “crisis” perhaps not being that surprising. Polis, as part of one of his early campaign promises and a sop to anti-carceral activists was to shut down private prisons in the state. One of them did close during his tenure, though not at his instigation. There is an interesting quote from the article about a study in response to Polis’ promise: “In 2019, state lawmakers passed a bill spending $250,000 on a study to determine how Colorado could end its reliance on private prisons. The study, released in 2021, found that Colorado should maintain its prison capacity.”

**One of the things I wondered prior to reading was how the reporters would characterize the budget shortfall and the lack of money––the Sun’s reporters have a nasty habit of blaming TABOR for our state’s financial woes. What was written here was thus a surprise.

https://coloradosun.com/2026/03/19/colorado-needs-new-prison-legislature/
https://coloradoaccountabilityproject.substack.com/p/colorados-crime-problem-isnt-just

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT COLORADO ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

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