By John Fryar
The Daily Times-Call
DENVER — Colorado is thousands of prison beds short of the space it’ll need to accommodate its growing inmate population over the next several years, a staff analyst for the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee warned Thursday. To close that gap, the state would have to build a new prison nearly every year at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, Karl Spiecker told members of the budget panel. The shortage of prison space isn’t a new problem, Spiecker noted. “We have been limping along the past few years” by paying to house offenders in privately operated facilities and paying counties to house inmates who are waiting for space in either state or private prisons. Spiecker reported that the state is expected to need about 7,300 more prison beds over the next five years. All the state’s own prison beds are expected to be full by mid- He said that about 1,000 more beds in state correctional facilities and 3,840 beds in private Colorado prisons could come online within five years, reducing the projected mid-2012 shortage to about 2,500 prison beds. However, if a new 948-bed Cañon City-area penitentiary and a 62-bed expansion of the Denver Reception and Diagnostic Center don’t get the $57.9 million in additional funding they need to proceed, or if private prison beds don’t come online as planned, the state would still be 7,300 beds short, Spiecker said. The Department of Corrections, he said, has developed a five-year construction plan that would involve spending $723 million from fiscal 2008-09 through 2011-12 to add 5,529 state correctional facility beds. But several budget committee members expressed skepticism Thursday about whether state government would have that much money available to spend on prisons and other non-highway construction needs. “Where’s the good news?” asked Grand Junction Democratic Rep. Bernie Buescher, vice chairman of the JBC. Meanwhile, some budget panelists indicated concern about a growing reliance on private prisons, a situation they suggested will give those private companies too much clout in raising the rates the state must pay to house inmates in their facilities. Boulder Democratic Rep. Jack Pommer cautioned that Colorado is moving into a situation of having to get into bidding wars with other states for housing inmates in private facilities. If Colorado isn’t careful, Pommer joked, “We’re going to be leasing old Motel 6’s with fences around them.” “We’re running quickly into where our options are very limited,” said Pueblo Democratic Sen. Abel Tapia, the JBC chairman. “We’re getting to a critical stage here.” Tapia added, “I really do think that we as a state should have our own beds.” The Joint Budget Committee is scheduled to discuss the prison-space crunch with Department of Corrections officials during a Jan. 15 hearing. John Fryar can be reached by e-mail at jfryar@times-call.com.
2007, and private prisons in Colorado are also near capacity, Spiecker said.
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