State Inmates Belong in State Prisons

Like most people, I am doing good to remember one or two points out of any speech including a recent talk by the Governor. I remember the renewable energy portion and I think he said something about health care, but what really got my attention was his assertion that the State of Colorado was about to get out of the prison business.

He was referring to a prison that is currently under construction and when completed there would be no need for new prisons, either state owned or private. It sounds good, and if we knew how much we spend on the Department of Corrections we would all applaud, but from a county perspective it concerns me, a lot.

The legislature through the years has responded to various public outcries concerning crime and judges that had handed down light sentences by imposing mandatory sentencing. This, of course, led to overcrowded prisons which led to mandatory parole. We now know that in some categories more than 55% of parolees will re-offend and be back in the county jail in a short time. They sit in county jails while their new crime works its way through the judicial system. Once that is disposed of (or as they say in the business “dispo’ed”) they can then go back to the state system to complete their original sentence. The other group of state inmates we house are the sentenced inmates that the state does not have room for. Unlike the first group, the county does receive reimbursement for their care but sometimes it is not about the money, we just plain need the bed space. On average 17 to 20 percent of our inmate population or 240 to 280 beds are being occupied by folks that should be the state’s responsibility.

The Governor spoke about some programs aimed at reducing recidivism and somehow we have to put a stop to the frequent fliers. However, with the county jail system being the default provider I am not comfortable with the Governor and the state legislators putting our Criminal Justice Center bed space at risk until they prove they have a successful program. After all, it was one of El Paso County’s current  legislators that made the statement a  few years back when asked about pending legislation that impacted the county jails “…not my problem, my job is to balance the state budget”.

CONTACT THE WRITER • HISEY4CD4@MSN.COM

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