A new high security prison in Canon City is preparing to open its doors to problem prisoners and officials say the new facility is long overdue. The Centennial Correctional Facility is located in east Canon City. The facility was approved by legislature in 2002, but several lawsuits and budget cuts delayed construction until 2007. Reported in the Colorado Connection.

Wednesday the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) held a dedication ceremony for the new facility. For prisoners the Centennial Correctional Facility is the end of the line.

“This is a 24 hour a day lock down. We have a five level security classifications system. This is level five which is the highest level,” said Ari Zavaras, Executive Director of the DOC.

Officials say prisoners who are problems at other facilities will end up in single cells at the Centennial Correctional Facility.

“Individuals that come into this setting do what we call in the system earn their way into this facility. It’s by their behavior as opposed to what their crime was,” said Zavaras.

The facility has 948 high security beds in three towers. But because they are so expensive to run, only one tower will open in September.

Zavaras says to operate one tower costs a little over $10 million. Each tower holds 316 high security beds and the one that is opening will be filled to capacity almost immediately.

“We’ve had a backup in our high security beds so we’ll be able to get some of those individuals who are backed into facilities right now into this facility and start the programming,” said Zavaras.

Attorney General John Suthers says the need for this facility goes back to 2001. “Make no mistake about it, anyone who knows this business knows that adequate high security beds are absolutely essential to the proper and safe functioning of an effective Department of Corrections,” said Suthers.

Officials say the goal of the Centennial Correctional Facility is to teach problem prisoners better behavior and prepare them to return to society as a contributing member.

The Centennial Correctional Facility will officially open on September 1.They will accept 15 prisoners a day until capacity is reached.

jchev Colorado, Jail and Prison Construction

The last graduating class from a military-style prison boot camp in Buena Vista received certificates Thursday, ending a program that failed to meet expectations and became too costly to run. If Thursday’s class of 23 follows the record of previous graduates, 12 of them will commit new crimes within three years of their release. News from The Denver Post.

Although given big rewards — including shorter prison sentences — 51 percent of the 155 inmates released from prison through boot camp in fiscal year 2007 have already returned to prison.

The 51 percent recidivism rate of these nonviolent offenders was only 2 percentage points better than the record of inmates convicted of crimes such as robbery and murder.

“The lowest-risk offenders go into the camp,” said Katherine Sanguinetti, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections. “You would have expected a huge difference in recidivism.”

The boot camp graduates were rewarded as though their prospects for success were dramatically raised. The graduates were five times as likely to win an early release as their peers. They qualified for release 28 months before their parole eligibility dates and were immediately eligible for sentence reductions.

But the deciding factor leading to the closure of the program was it became too costly as fewer inmates qualified or volunteered for the program. Just in the past year, the cost per inmate rose from $78 a day to $110.

Low-risk inmates drop
Colorado’s prison system has seen a steady drop in the number of minimum-security inmates, while the number of more dangerous offenders is climbing steadily, Sanguinetti said. Between 1999 and 2008, the number of boot camp enrollees dropped 40 percent from 540 to 322.

In a state suffering a budget crisis, the DOC had to shift funds from the boot camp to higher-security prisons, she said.

The three-month boot camp, which opened in 1991, offered a GED program, substance-abuse treatment and immediate consequences for bad behavior. About 90 percent of the offenders had drug- or alcohol-abuse problems, Sanguinetti said.

But the duration of the counseling may not have been long enough to result in permanent change. They may have done better if given ongoing drug treatment, she said.

Colorado is far from the only state to achieve disappointing results from a boot camp program. In Pennsylvania, a 2000 study found that boot camp graduates were actually more likely to fail at following parole restrictions after their release from prison, and only slightly less likely than the general prison population to commit new crimes.

A June 2003 U.S. Department of Justice study determined that nationally there were only small or negligible differences in recidivism rates between boot camp graduates and the general prison population.

Life-changing program
Brandon Butler, 32, however said the program changed his life. By age 17, he was using methamphetamine, carrying a gun and burglarizing homes. He was looking at an 18-year prison sentence when he was sent to boot camp in 2000. It was physically and emotionally exhausting.

“It broke me. Once you reach the bottom of the pit and you survive, you realize you can do anything. I discovered myself. I made it,” he said. “I’m bummed they are getting rid of the program.”

He currently is a district manager for an optical company.

But graduates of the boot camp also included Joaquin Benzor, 19, who later was a suspect in the killing of 38-year-old Charles Mills III in Greeley when he was killed in a shootout with Weld County sheriff’s deputies in January 1997.

The program had a high dropout rate. Through March 2008, 2,570 of the inmates enrolled in the boot camp — 33 percent — dropped out or were removed. Of 7,742 inmates in the program, 957 completed their GEDs in the program.

Those who couldn’t hack it and were later released from prison had a tougher time adjusting to society than inmates who never went there at all. Of the 98 boot camp dropouts released in 2007, 61 percent reoffended compared with 53 percent of the general population.

Brian Hicks, who prosecutors say founded the Elite Eight, a subset of the Rolling 30’s Crips Denver street gang, is among those who dropped out of boot camp. He mentored gang member Willie Clark, who was driving Hicks’ SUV when he fatally shot Denver Bronco Darrent Williams on Jan. 1, 2007.

Hicks is charged along with Clark and another defendant in the December 2006 witness-killing murder of Kalonniann Clark, who was to testify that Hicks shot her a year earlier outside a nightclub.

jchev Colorado, Inmate Programs

It’s difficult enough to get prosecutors and defense lawyers to agree on basic facts — the sun rising in the morning, for instance. But on Monday, state Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, convinced interests on both sides of the prison fence that there’s value to providing services parolees need to avoid returning to prison and, in turn, spare the state $15 million to use on other programs. News from the Pueblo Chieftain.

With the support of the state Public Defender, the Colorado District Attorneys Council, the Colorado Department of Corrections, the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition and others that tend to be polarized by law-and-order issues, Pace’s HB1360 advanced unanimously Monday through the House Judiciary Committee.

“The whole goal is to take the cost savings from decreased time in prison and use it to prevent people from committing other crimes,” Pace said.

About $3.1 million of the savings would be devoted to the programs outlined in Pace’s bill.

The bill seeks to reduce the number of parolees who violate conditions of parole without committing new crimes. It aims to isolate the factors that tend to divert released prisoners off the right path and address them specifically. That would be determined using evidence-based formulas for determining likelihood of recidivism, and affording opportunities for treatment to intercede in the cases of parolees who pose the lowest risks.

It provides for halfway house space and treatment in the areas that are most often pitfalls for parolees — such as housing, employment, mental health and substance abuse.

“The keystone in all of this is support services for parolees when they come out of prison,” said Christine Donner of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.

The bill would provide for 70 more beds in halfway-house-style situations for parolees who violate technical terms of parole without committing new offenses. By being placed in those settings, they would not take up prison beds and would get the treatment they need to avoid repeating their violations.

The parole board also would have the option of releasing some parolees directly into the programs to prevent violation in the first place.

Pace said in Pueblo, organizations like Crossroads’ Turning Points, Spanish Peaks Mental Health Center, Minnequa Community Corrections and Community Corrections Services Inc., could provide the services the bill seeks to make available to parolees to keep them on track.

For those parolees who have violated the rules but are deemed to be low-risk, the bill calls for 90-day sentences in community return to custody facilities — similar to halfway houses — rather than 180-day stays in prison.

The bill will go through the House Appropriations Committee on its way to the House floor for debate.

jchev Colorado, Parole, Recidivism

The closing of the boot camp program at the Buena Vista Correctional Complex will have an impact on the Park County Jail budget, but county officials are working to cover the loss. Story in The Flume.

The Park County Jail housed a number of inmates as they prepared to enter boot camp, and in return Park County was paid about $144,000 annually by the Colorado Department of Corrections. With that boot camp closing, Park County will be losing that revenue.

According to Park County Budget and Finance Director Kathy Boyce, in 2009 the Park County Jail brought in $1.6 million in revenue. The majority of that money was raised through contracts to house prisoners from other facilities.

That $144,000 tied to the boot camp represented 9 percent of the jail’s expected revenue for the year. She said the jail had budgeted $1.75 million in revenue in 2009.

Park County Undersheriff Monte Gore said he plans to meet with Colorado Department of Corrections officials to discuss housing more offenders to cover the loss of boot camp inmate revenue.

He hopes something could be worked out. “Park County has had a really good working relationship with the state for some time now,” Gore said.

He believes that the Park County Jail could take on more serious offenders. When the jail addition was built, upgrades to security were made. He feels the jail could safely house the serious offenders.

Saving Money
Decreased revenue is a problem Park County shares with almost every other agency in the state, Gore said.

“I think the state’s in a really tough spot,” he said. “Their revenues are down. They’ve been concerned for quite some time about diminishing revenues.”

The move to shutter the boot camp facilities is an effort to save money on a program that is being utilized by fewer inmates.

Katherine Sanguinetti, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections, said fewer inmates are qualifying for the boot camp program, increasing the cost of keeping it running.

She said the fixed costs of running the program make it more expensive as fewer inmates are admitted to boot camp. “The population doesn’t support it anymore,” she said. “In the last year, class 3, 4, 5, and 6 felonies have declined dramatically.”

Class 3 felonies are more severe than class 6 felonies. Sanguinetti said “new court commitments,” or new offenders coming into the system, are down from the previous year.

From 2008 to 2009, class 3 felonies declined 15 percent, class 4 declined 24 percent, class 4 declined 23 percent, and class 6 declined 7 percent.

“Since 1999, the last 10 years, the placement at boot camp has decreased steadily,” she said. Sanguinetti said it has decreased about 38 percent in the last 10 years because of the shrinking pool of inmates who would qualify for the program. In the last year, there was an average of 79 offenders per day, she said.

The removal of the program will save the state about $900,000 in 2010, and more than $1 million each year in 2011 and 2012.

The boot camp facility was created in 1993 after suggestions from a number of judges. It is only available to specific inmates.

According to Sanguinetti, in order to qualify for the intensive 90-day program, inmates had to be younger than 30, had to pass a physical, and had to be convicted of a nonviolent crime.

She said doors weren’t being closed permanently on the program. There is a possibility that it could come back in the future.

“The one thing to keep in mind is that we’re not seeking a statutory change,” she said. “We’re just suspending it until we have more money and the population will keep it full again.”

jchev Colorado, Inmate Programs

Pueblo’s gang problem is under a microscope. The Pueblo Community Gang Task Force recently formed and is gathering information and community wide participation to take a close look at gangs and alleviate the problem in Pueblo. Story in the Pueblo Cheiftain.

“One of the frustrations we have is, we have these (community gang) presentations, but once the presentations are over, we don’t move beyond that. The purpose of this task force is to move beyond that,” said the group’s chairman, Al Gurule, a longtime Chicano activist and owner of an East Side community corrections center.

Local law enforcement agencies including the district attorney’s office, probation and parole departments, the Pueblo Housing Authority and even Colorado State University-Pueblo have joined the effort to “extinguish” the local gang problem.

According to police, there’s an estimated 1,200 gang members in Pueblo.   The group meets monthly and has held two meetings thus far. Meetings are open to the public and Gurule said they’re recruiting other organizations.

Still in its infancy, what already has set this group apart from others is its size, organization and implementation of a research component.

“What’s different with this is we are using a research model to approach the problems,” Pueblo Police Chief Jim Billings said. “We’re not only spending time to identify the problem, we’re trying to use research methods to measure whether or not we’ve had success.

“Many times people come to the table with solutions already in mind to address a problem and that can be effective, but probably not as effective as truly using a problem-solving model where you clearly identify the problem you’re trying to solve and then explore all options out there.”

That’s why CSU-Pueblo criminology professor Chris Messer joined the team.

The task force is gathering information from local school districts and other organizations and agencies about gangs. The group is also looking at, among other data, poverty, crime and recidivism rates to help them form an overall picture of the problem.

It’ll be Messer’s job to chart and interpret the data.

“We’re dealing with numbers to some extent, but once we get that data, we hope to be able to measure those things,” Messer said. “Our biggest goal is for this to not just be some task force that just debates these issues without accomplishing anything in the end. I feel really strongly we can do that.”

Gurule uses a couple analogies in describing this group’s role in dissecting Pueblo’s gang problem.

Like a physician, he said the group wants to make an “MRI” of the gang problem and then, like an artist, step back from the individual brush strokes and see the whole picture.

“Once we see that total picture we want to come up with some tangible programs or new programs to extinguish that problem,” he said.

That may include helping other already existing programs in the community or later applying for grant money to establish new ones.

“It’s a pretty big job,” Gurule acknowledged. “Maybe we won’t extinguish it, but maybe we can minimize it and that’s definitely a step forward.”

jchev Colorado, Community Corrections, Gangs (STGs)

A coalition opposed to a $10.8 million proposal to open one of three towers at Colorado State Prison II is calling on the powerful Joint Budget Committee today to reject the proposal supported by the Department of Corrections and Gov. Bill Ritter. News from the Denver Daily.

Criminal defense attorneys, mental health advocates and justice reform proponents say now is not the time to be approving additional funding for new prison beds – not when the state has already cut over $2 billion in the current fiscal year and is looking at another $1.5 billion in cuts in the upcoming year.

The JBC is expected to weigh the $10.8 million proposal today.

As part of Ritter’s latest $340 million budget-balancing proposal unveiled in February, the governor is calling for opening 33 percent, or 316 beds, of the new Colorado State Penitentiary II. Supporters of the proposal point to a string of violent incidents caused by some of the state’s most violent and destructive prisoners who are being housed in regular prisons.

The new tower would house some of the state’s most violent offenders, with inmates locked up about 23 hours a day.

Proponents of the proposal point out that DOC services and facilities have been cut by $14.8 million as part of recent budget-balancing measures, making the issue a matter of public safety.

At a news conference last week, Corrections officers pointed out that there have been three inmate murders over the last several months. They also pointed to a Corrections officer who had her throat slashed by an inmate at Limon Correctional Facility and another Corrections officer who was murdered at Limon Ń all within the last decade.

But critics say housing the state’s most violent offenders in one unit is a poor fiscal and social move. They say increasing vocational programs and so-called wrap-around services for parolees is a better use of money. The state recently backed out of $3 million in vocational programs and $1.8 million in wrap-around services when the economic downturn intensified and budget shortfalls increased.

“It is counterintuitive and counterproductive to cut successful, research-based programs that promote productivity and safety both within prison and after release,” said Christie Donner, executive director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.

Katherine Sanguinetti, spokeswoman for the DOC, says those educational programs were not actually cut, because the programs had yet to start.

“No actual services that we currently have in place are being cut,” she said. “We’re not actually decreasing any of our programs or services in those areas.”

Meanwhile, the state’s recidivism rate has actually increased slightly since 2006 to 53.4 percent. Sanguinetti says that is a result of budget cuts in 2002 during the last recession that cut DOC services and staff. Parolees hitting the world in 2006 and 2007 had less access to educational and drug and alcohol treatment programs as a result, she said.

Critics of opening new beds at CSP II say if the DOC is truly concerned about public safety, then they’ll increase mental health services and stop housing inmates with mental health issues in restrictive environments.

“Colorado needs to stop depending on long-term solitary confinement as a correctional tool,” said Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU in Colorado. “It is too expensive, it does nothing to prepare prisoners for their eventual return to their communities, and it has been condemned by human rights advocates as cruel and unusual punishment, especially for prisoners with serious mental illness.”

The coalition states that 37 percent of inmates housed in so-called administrative segregation units are offenders with a mental health condition. The group believes such inmates should be housed in a general population environment with a higher ratio of inmates to mental health workers.

But Sanguinetti says the issue is a balancing act for DOC officials.

“The offenders that need to be in those high-security beds, they make the whole system unsafe, and in order for treatment to be effective, you have to feel safe in your environment,” she said. “Part of that treatment and those recidivism efforts being effective is getting the right offender in the right bed.”

jchev Colorado, Economic Issues, Jail and Prison Construction

During a visit with Buena Vista Correctional Complex employees and The Times Feb. 9, Colorado Department of Corrections executive director Ari Zavaras shared information on what is happening at the Colorado Department of Corrections. He talked about the state of CDOC given current economic times and state budget cuts. News reported in the Chaffee County Times.

Zavaras said he also wanted people to know about what he is focusing upon and proposals for the 2010-2011 CDOC budget.

“I like to communicate the best way I can and touch as many people as I can. I want to let the community know what we are doing and how we are doing it,” Zavaras said. Buena Vista Correctional Complex is a major contributor to the community and wants to be a good neighbor, he said. An example of one of the major contributions to the community is the inmate work crews out shoveling snow in Buena Vista Feb. 9, he said. The number of employees at BVCC is around 400, he said. A sample of other programs at BVCC helping the community is the dog-training program at the facility.

The fiscal year for CDOC runs from July to the end of June. The department of corrections is preparing the next budget, the 2010-2011 budget. In the past couple of budget years, the CDOC employees have seen no pay raises and that probably won’t change in the next year’s budget, Zavaras said. State employees also were required to take eight furlough days without pay. With the 2009 budget cuts, there was no increase in the budget to cover inflation for the cost of the food for the prison complexes. Colorado Department of Corrections is still replacing retirees even during a hiring freeze, he said.

“Revenues continue to decline and there will be further adjustments,” he said. Zavaras said the state and CDOC are looking for a lot of different options for the next fiscal year. Every option is on the table, he said.

Zavaras discussed two budget proposals for the next budget year. One proposal is to create as much efficiency as the department can. One way to create efficiency is to deliver programs in a better way. Part of the programs improvement would be to continue focusing on improving the recidivism rate. Over a period of six months, July through December 2009, there was a decrease in the prison population. The decrease in the prison population had a positive impact on the budget, he said. The number of inmates in CDOC facilities was decreased by 62 males and by 24 females each month for six months.

Accelerated transition or early release of inmates included only parole-eligible inmates with heavy services or help for the inmate when the inmate was released. The number of early releases was small, he said.

Other ways to be more efficient are to look at the utilities for the facilities. Renewable energy, such as solar energy, is something to look at, Zavaras said.

Prisons do have issues, Zavaras said. Incidents are increasing, he said. The Department of Corrections has seen a 20 percent increase in inmate assaults on inmates and a 10 percent increase in inmate assaults on staff. The gang population has doubled. In 2009, there were 176 lockdowns – all inmates locked in cells. Lockdowns are staff-intensive, he said.

An issue for CDOC is having enough high-security beds for close-custody inmates. Buena Vista Correctional Complex is a medium-security prison with a large number of high-security or close-custody inmates. The number of close-custody inmates is approaching about 40 percent at BVCC and 47 percent at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility.

For next year’s budget, Zavaras proposed the opening of the new high-security prison, Colorado State Penitentiary II, in the east Cañon City complex area. This new prison is still under construction. Zavaras said he is looking at completing and opening the newly built facility or at least opening enough high-security beds for close-custody inmates. “The big question is to come up with the money to open CSP II,” he said. If close-custody inmates are moved out of BVCC, other inmates with lower security levels will replace them, he said.

Gov. Bill Ritter emphasizes that public safety is still the number-one priority, Zavaras said. Ritter has indicated there is enough money in the next year’s budget to open CSP II, he said.

While working on the budget and possible cuts for the next year, Zavaras said he plans to maintain services. He attributes the capability to maintain services to the quality of employees working for CDOC.

“Most staff is very proud of what they do,” he said. The department has 6,500 employees. This number will stay the same, Zavaras said.

jchev Colorado

The Department of Corrections is working on several options that will open the Colorado State Penitentiary II. Executive Director Ari Zavaras said the facility should be ready to open by the next fiscal year. Reported by the Canon City Daily Record.

“We’re looking at a plan where we can make some moves within the department,” he said. “We are looking at some possibilities at getting it open.”

The facility is on track to be completed by the end of June, with contractors mainly completing finish work, according to program manager Mark Crisman.

DOC has seen a growth of 750 high-security inmates during the last 10 years but has not added any high-security beds in that time, Zavaras said.

Currently, 1,300 high-security inmates are being managed in lower-security facilities because of lack of space in the current high-security facilities.

This situation has created security concerns for the department, which has had facilities on lockdown 176 times during the last year. “That’s a lot,” Zavaras said.

Lockdown at facilities is initiated after a major incident, such as assaults on inmates or officers. In higher security prisons, such as CSP II will be, there are more controls. CSP II will be a full lockdown facility, with inmates in their cells 23 hours a day.

“Just the threat of a higher security bed is a deterrent,” Zavaras said. “They don’t want to go there.”

When CSP II is fully operational, it will have 948 high-security beds. These are single-occupancy cells set in five towers. Each tower has two cell houses with eight pods per cell house.

The layout of CSP II is similar to that of CSP with some updates to fit with modern standards. For example, cell windows in CSP provide three square feet of natural light; that has been increased to four square feet in CSP II.

Unique to CSP II is a in-cell “kiosk” system, said Mike Fowler, physical plant manager for the prison. Each cell has a computer monitor, keyboard, mouse and headphones that allow the inmate to have their video visitations, as well as provide staff communication abilities, television and allow them to control their offender bank account. The system reduces the amount that inmates will need to be transported out of their cells.

The prison also will contain a full medical clinic that will allow officials to deal with basic medical care on-site without depending on St. Thomas More Hospital, Fowler said.

By the time the facility is complete, offenders from other prisons will have completed $18 million worth of work on the building, including painting, concrete, building the cells and general clean up.

Zavaras said Gov. Bill Ritter is working closely with the department to determine budgetary needs to be able to open the facility. He said Ritter has a good understanding of the work of the department and the tools necessary to get it done.

He added the highest priority in the department is the safety of staff and inmates. “We take that responsibility very seriously,” he said.

Zavaras is fairly confident that CSP II will open, at least partially, in the next fiscal year. “We’re looking at every conceivable option,” he said.

jchev Colorado, Jail and Prison Construction

Faulty projections about how much money the prisoner early-release plan could save may force Colorado DOC to consider other budget-cutting measures, including slashing corrections programs and staff, officials say.  Reported by the Denver Post.

“It doesn’t appear to be working,” said state Rep. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, referring to Gov. Bill Ritter’s plan to cut $19 million from the budget by releasing thousands of prisoners on parole up to six months early. “Their assumptions were bad, or something.” Lambert, a member of the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, said the issue should be addressed when the committee meets in November and December. JBC chairwoman Sen. Moe Keller, D-Wheat Ridge, said the state may have to go back and make more cuts … “This isn’t something we necessarily want to do,” Keller said. “We have to make hard choices.”

The proposal to slash $19 million from the Colorado Department of Correction’s budget this year is tied directly to the number of inmates released early. State officials estimated that over the two years of the program, 8,003 inmates will be eligible for early release. They initially projected that the parole board would deny 20 percent of the early-release cases, leaving about 6,400 who could be released. But Parole Board chairman David Michaud said the board has rejected about 80 percent, including 149 sex offenders. If that rate continues, 1,600 inmates would get early releases in two years. “I’m sure there would be an impact on savings,” DOC spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said.

The early-release initiative, announced Aug. 18, is part of a plan to fill a $318 million state budget gap. Sanguinetti said the DOC will now look at other cost-cutting options. “It would be up to the governor’s office.” Lambert said the DOC may be able to find cost savings in other parts of its budget without putting the safety of residents in jeopardy … Lambert said the DOC could reduce the budget by cutting staff, sending inmates to less costly private prisons or cutting programs. “We have some serious questions we need to ask them about this.” Michaud said other options for the DOC to save money include granting early parole to hundreds of illegal immigrants and to prisoners who also have been convicted of crimes in other states. The illegal immigrants could then be deported and the dual offenders could be sent to the other states to begin serving sentences there, he said. “Are there other avenues for savings?” Michaud said. “I think so.”

jakking Colorado, Early Release, Economic Issues

Colorado State Rep. Glenn Vaad said he was stunned when he learned that the Colorado Department of Corrections planned to leave a new, $208 million maximum-security prison empty because of the state’s budget crisis.  Story from CBS4Denver.

“That’s unconscionable in my mind. We invested $208 million of the taxpayers’ money and because of the economic downturn, we can’t afford to open it,” he said. “Let’s sell it.” Vaad, R-Mead, said the state would have to change state law to allow a private prison to buy or lease the prison because state law bars private companies from housing maximum security prisoners. If lawmakers reject that option, Vaad said it should be sold off and run privately as a medium security prison allowed under current law.

Although the state is currently in a budget crisis and opening the prison has been put on hold, Sen. Moe Keller, who heads the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, state attorney general John Suthers and corrections director Ari Zavaras have all come out against Vaad’s plan, saying it’s too dangerous. “I would not approve of allowing the private sector to operate maximum security prisons in the state of Colorado,” said Suthers, a Republican. “If you look around the country, placing maximum security detention into private hands has not gone well.” Keller, a Democrat from Wheat Ridge, said the state has already had serious problems with medium security private prisons and allowing the private operation of a maximum security prison is out of the question. “I’m vehemently opposed to selling a maximum security prison to a private company,” Keller said. However, Keller said she might be open to selling the building to a private company if some other use can be found …

Rep. Buffie McFadyen, a Democrat from Pueblo West who represents state prison workers in her district, said the new building is one of eight prisons inside a barbed-wire compound in Canon City and she said it should be run as a prison, but she’s against private prisons because she believes they are a security risk. McFadyen said the state cannot leave the building empty because security for the old maximum security prison is being moved to the new facility.

Zavaras said he believes Colorado lawmakers will do the right thing and eventually open the new prison. “The budget crisis is unprecedented; however, our need for high custody beds is important to manage our prison population,” Zavaras said.

The old facility, the Colorado State Penitentiary now known as Centennial, has 756 beds and as of Sept. 30, was near capacity with 749 inmates. Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said there are already unfilled beds in other private prisons. She said the real demand is for maximum security, although the state doesn’t know how many beds it will need. She said some potentially dangerous maximum security inmates are now housed in county jails, but the state has no way of knowing how many there are because they have not been evaluated and they won’t be classified until they can enter the state system.

Last January, Gov. Bill Ritter said the state should delay opening the new prison by one year, along with a new diagnostic center to July 2010, saving $2.7 million. He also announced the closure of the 210-bed Colorado Women’s Correctional Facility in Canon City effective May 31, saving $5.2 million, eliminating 71 jobs and requiring the transfer and double-bunking of inmates at other facilities. And that was before state lawmakers learned they will have to cut another $240 million from this year’s $19.1 billion budget by June 30.

Keller said that means everything is on the table, including the sale of state buildings. She said it also means that the prison will probably remain closed for the forseeable future. Vaad said the state could reap other savings as well if the building is turned over to a private company. He said it costs the state as much as $77 a day to house one prisoner, and private companies are already doing the job for $52 a day. “We have a budget crisis. I think we use that money for other needs,” he said.

jakking Budgets, Colorado, Economic Issues, Jail and Prison Construction

Colorado officials plan to release roughly 15 percent of the state’s 23,000 prisoners early to help slash millions of dollars from the state budget, according to the AP.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti says budget cuts that took effect Tuesday call for the release of 3,500 inmates in Colorado prisons during the next two years. The move is expected to save about $45 million during the next two years. An additional 2,600 parolees will be released early from parole.

Prisoners within six months of their mandatory release date will be eligible to get out early. Those eligible for early release from parole have to have served at least half of their supervised term and been meeting the conditions of their release.

jakking Colorado, Early Release, Economic Issues, Parole

The national recession is taking its toll on what had been one of the fastest-growing areas of state government spending: prisons. Even though state corrections budgets have ballooned in the past two decades amid a surging U.S. prison population, at least 23 states slashed funding for prisons this year, according to a new survey by the nonpartisan Vera Institute of Justice, a research organization based in New York. Thirty-three states responded to the survey, paid for by The Pew Charitable Trusts.  This story is from the Pew publication, Stateline.Org.

A $1 billion cost-cutting plan announced last week by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) will translate into layoffs for more than a thousand state prison workers. In Oregon, a voter-approved plan to hand longer prison sentences to those who commit property crimes was delayed by state lawmakers who said they could not pay for it. Tennessee’s department of corrections has sought to save money by offering inmates less milk and meat in their daily meals. And in Kansas — which has received national attention in recent years for shifting resources from locking up prisoners to rehabilitating them — the state eliminated 85 percent of the slots in its substance-abuse treatment program for inmates, citing budget constraints.

Six states — Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and Washington — cut funding for corrections by more than 10 percent from last year’s levels, according to the study. Kansas saw the biggest recorded decrease, spending 22 percent less than it did last year.

Corrections is the fifth-largest area of state spending after Medicaid, secondary education, higher education and transportation. State spending on prisons has swelled as the nation’s jail and prison population has climbed to 2.3 million people, or about one in every 100 adults. But grim budget realities are forcing state lawmakers’ hand.

According to the Vera survey, many states are wringing savings from their correctional systems by trying to reduce the huge operational costs of running prisons — including by laying off workers, freezing their wages or cutting services to inmates. They also are exploring new ways to reduce recidivism and achieve long-term savings, in some cases easing sanctions on “technical violators” who break conditions of their parole and frequently are sent back to prison. Some states, including Colorado and Oregon, are allowing more prisoners to reduce their prison sentences through “earned-time credits” for good behavior and other forms of early release.

Some of the cost-cutting moves — using videoconferencing to avoid physically transporting inmates for court appearances, for example, and cutting back on inmates’ meal offerings — have targeted the basics of daily prison life and reaped relatively modest savings. But other changes will save tens of millions of dollars and have not come without political fights.

According to Stateline.org’s annual review of states’ legislative sessions, at least seven states — Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Washington — this year decided to close prisons. In some states, those plans touched off resistance among prison unions and in hard-hit communities anxious about losing even more jobs.   New York’s prison workers’ union earlier this year accused the administration of Gov. David Paterson (D) of creating “the most dangerous conditions ever” for correctional officers by closing 10 prisons and packing inmates into other facilities. In Michigan, which has the nation’s highest unemployment rate, Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) is trying to avoid closing some prisons — and laying off prison guards — by accepting inmates from California’s teeming system. Some state officials have backed the idea of housing detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Early releases also have caused alarm, particularly in California, where a federal panel of three judges last week ordered the state to free more than 40,000 inmates — or about 27 percent of its prison population — within the next two years to ease dangerous overcrowding. Attorney General Jerry Brown (D), who is widely expected to run for governor next year, attacked the decision and could appeal it to the U.S. Supreme Court. The early release of thousands of inmates also is being considered in Illinois.   While some criminal justice advocates contend that early releases and other cost-cutting moves could endanger public safety, others say states have not gone far enough in cutting inmate numbers.

Some advocates say state lawmakers have avoided what they see as the “elephant in the room” — tough sentencing policies that have put many low-level offenders behind bars for longer and been a major factor behind the explosive growth in the nation’s prison population since the 1970s, when many of the laws were passed. The federal panel that ruled on California’s prison overcrowding cited sentencing laws as a factor behind the Golden State’s huge prison population.  While New York this year revised its drug sentencing laws to give judges more discretion to keep offenders out of jail, other high-profile sentencing changes in the states have been far more limited in their scope. Texas, for instance, eliminated life without parole for juveniles, a penalty that currently affects only seven inmates. New Mexico abolished capital punishment, but had only two men on death row when the bill was signed into law in March.

Washington state’s legislative session this year was “completely upside down in terms of criminal justice policy,” said state Rep. Roger Goodman (D), vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Goodman said lawmakers cut funding for the wrong programs — such as housing and other transitional services that can help ex-inmates stay out of trouble — and refused to make substantial changes to the sentencing policies that he said have put too many nonviolent and drug-addicted people in prison in the first place. Goodman explained lawmakers’ distaste for making sentencing changes this way: “There aren’t enough political points to be gained by taking this issue on. There are political points to be gained by attacking it.”

While broad changes to criminal sentencing laws remain a tough sell issue in many state capitols, corrections officials are pushing other, less controversial changes to reduce prison populations. Many states have made sick or dying inmates eligible for early parole. Other states, including Florida and Tennessee, have invested more heavily in drug treatment courts and community supervision programs in the hopes of keeping offenders from returning to prison.  “Changing sentences is a very difficult thing to do. And so we’ve gone around it,” Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard said during an annual summit of state legislators in Philadelphia last month.

jakking Budgets, California, Colorado, Early Release, Economic Issues, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington

DENVER — The warden of the federal Supermax prison that holds some of the country’s most notorious criminals, including Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, is retiring. As reported by the Associated Press.

Warden Ron Wiley has announced he will retire effective Oct. 1 after 28 years of government service, Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley confirmed Monday.

Inmates at Supermax in Florence, Colo., include Moussaoui, Kaczynski and convicted Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, among others. The prison also has been mentioned as a possible home for Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Billingsley did not release reasons for Wiley’s departure.

“I’m surprised that Warden Wiley is leaving, very surprised,” said state Rep. Buffie McFadyen, a Democrat whose district includes Florence. “Usually, when something as big as Guantanamo detainees is being discussed, I would think they would want at least some consistency at the facility.”

There was no immediate word on who next warden at Supermax will be.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of an e-mail sent to staff July 13 that said Wiley indicated he planned to spend time with his family and pursue local teaching opportunities. The e-mail from Blake Davis, warden for the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, said Davis would serve as interim warden for Supermax and for the Florence Federal Correctional Complex that houses it, effective immediately.

“Warden Wiley’s commitment to the staff and the operation of FCC Florence has assisted our complex in setting the standard of how correctional complexes should function,” the e-mail said.

Supermax opened in 2004, about 90 miles south of Denver and 45 miles south of Colorado Springs. As of the last updated report from Thursday, Supermax held 465 inmates.

jchev Colorado, Personnel Issues

Faced with a budget crunch that forced him to lay off deputies, El Paso County CO Sheriff Terry Maketa has tapped a new source of revenue: illegal immigrants.  Report from the Denver Post.

Maketa has started leasing space in his jail to house an average of 150 immigrants a night for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He also sent 17 jail deputies for training in immigration procedures so they can initiate deportations without waiting for federal agents.  ICE pays $62.40 a night for each detained immigrant, plus mileage for transport in sheriff’s vans. The arrangement pumped $3.6 million into El Paso County over the past year and now provides 10 percent of the jail’s budget.

But Maketa said the money is just one factor driving his broadening alliance with ICE.  “I feel like we’re truly contributing to (solving) a national problem,” said Maketa, one of 67 law enforcement agency chiefs nationwide who have had deputies authorized to enforce federal immigration laws … Several Denver-area sheriffs — annoyed at delays in relying on a limited number of ICE agents to handle possible illegal immigrants in jails — say they’re considering sending deputies for federal ICE training.   There’s support from taxpayers to take the next step” in immigration enforcement, Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink said …

On any given night, most jails in the Denver area and across Colorado hold suspected illegal immigrants. Under state law, jailors must notify ICE and, if ICE is interested and able, the agency places a hold on the inmate. If ICE agents fail to pick up the inmate within 48 hours, the inmate is released when local charges are resolved.  But that raises public safety concerns and is not something the public wants, said Weld County Sheriff John Cooke, who added that he, like other sheriffs, had previously been reluctant to take on an immigration role. “Everybody’s attitude was: ‘That’s the job of the federal government, and we’re not going to do it for them.’ Well, when the federal government isn’t doing their job, the sheriffs get frustrated and the citizens get frustrated,” Cooke said. “We’re going to do the right thing for the citizens of our counties.”

On a recent night in Maketa’s El Paso County jail, more than 200 immigrants from Mexico, Taiwan and elsewhere were incarcerated … [D]eputies immediately start federal deportation proceedings — and start billing ICE for the cost of housing those inmates.  “When county budgets are decreasing, this is a revenue source,” detention bureau chief Paula Presley said …

Denver authorities oppose any increased collaboration with federal agents, beyond the notification all counties must make, under state law, when suspected illegal immigrants are jailed for crimes.  “We don’t help out the IRS either,” said Bill Lovingier, Denver undersheriff and director of corrections. Enforcing the civil offense of being in the country illegally “is a federal responsibility. It’s a federal issue. If they want local help, they should provide us resources. We are already stretched.”   The County Sheriffs of Colorado association remains “quite strongly against doing the feds’ work” on immigration, executive director Don Christensen said. “We feel we can’t get the support from the federal government that we should have. When we do find (illegal immigrants), they don’t come and get them. They fill up our jails and we have to turn them loose,” he said.

A great deal more information and background is available in the article at Denver Post.

jakking CO El Paso County, Economic Issues, ICE, Illegal Aliens

Weld County CO is moving ahead with plans to build its own work-release facility after problems surfaced last year at The Villa, which used to house a similar center, according to the Greeley Tribune.

The Greeley City Council approved a Planned Unit Development for the new work-release site … on Tuesday night. Weld County will own it, but contractor Intervention Community Correction Services will run the work-release site.

The Villa, operated by the Oklahoma-based company Avalon, came under fire after reports surfaced detailing sexual liaisons between staff and inmates and a tunnel that held weapons and drug paraphernalia. Work-release offenders were then moved to the Weld County Jail, where they will remain until the new facility is complete …

Construction on the new site — which will house 228 people in more than 35,000 square feet in its first phase of building — will begin in a few months, Weld officials say.   There also will be second and third phases of construction. The second will add 72 beds and more than 16,000 square feet. A third construction phase will come later, officials said … The facility will run 24 hours a day. Guards will be unarmed and there will be no lockdown ability. At the facility, the program participants will be able to leave for work while others will come to the facility to meet caseworkers and to routinely take drug tests.

Monica Mika, director of Weld County’s Administrative Services, said the facility offers a better alternative to simply jailing everyone.  “We know as a nation that we can not continue to just build jails,” Mika said.

jakking CO Weld County, Jail and Prison Construction, Work Release

The New York Times‘ Green Inc blog recently published an interesting survey of environmental projects within the corrections’ industry.  A sample:

Instead of reporting to the laundry or the kitchen or the boiler room, a Washington state prison inmate may report to the compost heap [if they are] taking part in a “green work” program at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center. Inmates grow organic produce, compost the prison’s food waste, take part in ecological research projects with a nearby university, and even produce honey from the prison’s own hives.  The Washington State Department of Corrections boasts 34 LEED-certified facilities, with 923,789 square feet of LEED-certified space added in fiscal year 2008 alone …

This fall, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced 16 new green retrofitting projects, which they estimate will save $3 million in energy costs each year. The state already has solar power fields at two facilities, and plans to build six more in the coming year. A new $176 million juvenile detention facility in Alameda County — home to Berkeley and Oakland — recently became the country’s first jail to receive LEED gold certification.  Other green projects — from wind turbines to biomass boilers — have been announced by Departments of Corrections in Virginia, Nevada, and Indiana…

Ken Ricci, of Ricci Greene Associates, is currently working on a new $120 million detention center in downtown Denver, which the company plans to submit for LEED certification. “There’s a recognition that sustainable, or ‘green’ design, is actually a plus for a population that’s confined 24 hours a day,” Mr. Ricci said. “Environment cues behavior. If you treat people like animals, they behave like animals.”  Mr. Ricci … says design elements that earn LEED points, like daylighting and access to views, also improve security. “If you treat them like human beings — that is to say, there’s daylight coming in, the noise level is at a normative level — therefore your adrenaline level goes down, therefore your stress level goes down, the inmates feel safer.”

jakking CO Denver County, California, Colorado, Environment and Energy, Indiana, Jail and Prison Construction, Nevada, Virginia, Washington

In this time of economic turmoil some legislators in Kansas and elsewhere say the price of justice is too high. They have introduced legislation to take the death penalty off the books over financial concerns. CNN reports.

“Because of the downturn in the national economy, we are facing one of the largest budget deficits in our history,” state Sen. Carolyn McGinn, a Republican, said in an opinion piece posted on TheKansan.com Friday. “What is certain is we are all going to have to look at new and creative ways to fund state and community programs and services.”   The state would save more than $500,000 per case by not seeking the death penalty, McGinn wrote, money that could be used for “prevention programs, community corrections and other programs to decrease future crimes against society” …

A 2008 study by the Urban Institute, an economic and social policy research group based in Maryland, found that an average capital murder trial in the state resulting in a death sentence costs about $3 million, or $1.9 million more than a case where the death penalty is not sought.  A similar 2008 study by the ACLU in Northern California found that a death- penalty trial costs about $1.1 million more than a non-death-penalty trial in California …

New Mexico, which also has a bill before the Legislature to abolish the death penalty, has already seen a case where costs dictated the outcome. Last year, the New Mexico attorney general’s office agreed to drop the death penalty for two inmates involved in the stabbing death of a guard, Ralph Garcia, during a 1999 riot at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility.   The change came after the state Legislature failed to provide additional funding for defense attorneys contracted to handle the case by the public defender’s office.  In court documents filed at the time, Attorney General Gary King said his office could not “in good faith under these circumstances” pursue the death penalty against Robert Young and Reis Lopez …

In Colorado, House Bill 1274 proposes to put the anticipated savings from abolishing the death penalty toward the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s cold case homicide team.

Other States with bills for an economic end to the death penalty include Washington, Montana, Nebraska, Texas and New Hampshire.

jakking California, Colorado, Death Penalty, Economic Issues, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Texas, Washington

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter announced today that his office, working together with the Department of Corrections, state Sen. Al White and the Joint Budget Committee, is no longer considering closing the Rifle prison to help balance the state’s budget.

“After listening to the concerns of people in Rifle and working closely with the department and the JBC, we believe we can close the budget shortfall without closing this facility,” Ritter said. “The community played a valuable role in sharing its concerns, and I’m pleased we were able to find common ground and reach consensus.”

The recommendation to close the 192-bed Rifle prison was among many budget-balancing suggestions submitted to the Joint Budget Committee last month. Selling the facility, land and water rights would have generated $5 million in revenue and produced an annual savings of $600,000.  The Rifle facility has a staff of 57.

jakking Colorado, Economic Issues

Options for offenders will decrease and the workload at probation will increase come March 13 in the Seventh Judicial District of Colorado, according to a report in the Montrose Daily Press.

Community Corrections, Inc. is terminating its day-reporting program in Montrose that day. Carrol Warner, chief probation officer for the Seventh Judicial District, said CCI’s grant funding for the program fell to state budget cuts and its non-residential community corrections component has only five current cases … People sentenced to commcorr must successfully complete a residential phase before they can be transferred to the non-residential program, which includes intensive supervision …

Community Corrections, Inc … has been a presence in Montrose for 11 years and its local office oversees day-reporting, electronic monitoring and non-residential supervision.    It can also provide private probation supervision for low-risk cases, which, Warner said, is “extremely helpful”.  “Community Corrections Inc. came in when no one else would help us with that process. Since that time, though, they’ve maintained that office at a loss,” Warner said. “They have been very good to work with, but they just can’t sustain that effort in these times” …

CCI’s situation does not affect plans to build a residential community corrections facility in Montrose, for the Seventh Judicial District. The six-county district is working with another company, Intervention Community Correction Services, and has been hashing out logistics for the past few years … Warner said the building of an ICCS facility could solve Montrose’s looming problem with day-reporting and non-residential commcorr clients.

jakking CO Montrose County, Colorado, Community Corrections

Colorado prison officials blame a stunning increase in violence and lockdowns on mushrooming gang activity and budget cuts that reduced programs to keep inmates out of trouble.   Corrections chief Ari Zavaras outlined statistics in a briefing to state lawmakers, as reported by the Vail Daily.

Prisons were locked down 148 times in the 2007-08 fiscal year, an 80 percent increase with 66 more lockdowns than in the previous fiscal year, Zavaras said.   Assaults by inmates on other inmates rose 19.5 percent and assaults by inmates on staff went up 11 percent, he said … “In the last eight years, the gang population increased by 85 percent while our inmate population only increased by 42 percent,” said prison spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti. More than 9,300 inmates of the total prison population of 23,000 are identified as gang members or affiliates, she said … Sanguinetti said efforts are made to keep rival gang members away from each other, but with such high levels of gang affiliation, “they are going to run into each other more frequently” …

The need for high-security cells will be addressed by a new prison in Canon City, but its completion has been delayed until fiscal year 2010-11 in a move to cut $17 million from the prison budget, Sanguinetti said.   “When the existing (maximum security) Colorado State Penitentiary opened, we had a 66 percent reduction in violence through the system,” she said. “We expect the same effect when the new one opens” …

Inmates also aren’t getting programs designed to change their behavior such as one in which staff took photos of prisoners that were printed and sent to inmates’ families.   Although it doesn’t seem like such a program would cost much, Sanguinetti pointed out “when you have 23,000 offenders, costs mount up.”   Inmate morale wasn’t improved by a cut in prisoner pay from several dollars a day to 60 cents. So-called gate release money given to inmates when they are released from prison has remained at $100 since the 1970s, Sanguinetti said.

One piece of good news:

Zavaras said, is the dramatic decrease in the number of prisoners entering the system.  About 32 inmates a month came into the system in the 2007-08 fiscal year, compared with the usual 100 a month, he said. So far this fiscal year, the number has dropped to 26 a month.   “It definitely is a hopeful trend,” Zavaras said. The overall prison population is expected to increase from 23,567 at the end of this fiscal year to 25,558 in 2021.

jakking Colorado, Gangs (STGs), Inmate Programs