Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Prison Conditions

A closet, a camera and a setup: Tina Peters assaulted in prison then thrown into solitary
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

A closet, a camera and a setup: Tina Peters assaulted in prison then thrown into solitary

By A.L. Goodwin | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice On the evening of January 18, just after 9:00 p.m., Tina Peters was assaulted inside the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, Colorado—not in a yard or a common area, but in a narrow janitor’s closet, out of view of surveillance cameras. Peters had been filling a portable swamp cooler, a task other inmates routinely refuse to do, even as the prison overheats in the dead of winter due to a failing HVAC system. To access the water tank, she pulled the unit into the cramped closet, positioning her head and upper body between the door and the cooler—leaving her physically pinned in a space barely wider than the machine itself. As Peters maneuvered the unit, another inmate approached in an agitated state. The wom...
Colorado’s systems have failed Tina Peters again and again
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s systems have failed Tina Peters again and again

By RMV Editorial Board On December 8, 2025, three events collided in Colorado that no honest observer can dismiss as coincidence. A federal judge dismissed Tina Peters’ habeas corpus petition, admitting she raised “important constitutional questions” about whether a state court punished her for her speech, then refused to consider those questions because of the Younger doctrine. Hours later, Colorado’s Department of Corrections moved Peters into Isolation Detention Observation: twenty-two hours a day in a concrete cell, lights on around the clock, no yard time and a single explanation—“this is for your safety.”  That same afternoon, the United States Department of Justice opened a civil-rights investigation into Colorado’s prisons and youth facilities, citing po...