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.

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.

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.”

“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.”

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.”

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.

“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.

“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.”

“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.

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.