By SAMMY SHULTS
Colorado Department of Corrections is facing an unprecedented catastrophe and nothing is being done to prevent it. CDOC’s situation is untenable and needs help from the legislature to prevent unnecessary calamity and maintain public safety.
The Problems
The Colorado Division of Criminal Justice provides a semiannual report, Colorado Prison Population – Trends, Forecasts, and Factors, to CDOC and the General Assembly. The latest report shows a population increase of 45% by fiscal year 2028. This means the projected prison population will be 22,364, which Colorado prisons do NOT have the capacity to hold. Is Colorado going to spend millions of dollars of taxpayer money on new prisons?
CDOC is also experiencing extraordinary staffing shortages and is short over 1,700 staff statewide! Some facilities like Sterling Correctional Facility, the largest in the state, have indefinitely closed their inmate programs department and are using rehabilitators (teachers, mental health staff, etc.) and case managers as security personnel. This means no rehabilitation efforts are in place to fulfill the mission of rehabilitating inmates and protecting public safety. These grossly negligent policies need to be investigated.
What Not to Do
Throwing taxpayer money at this problem is not the answer, even though the Governor has asked the General Assembly for over $1.3 Billion for next year’s CDOC budget. This will only exacerbate the problems. The solutions are in new legislation and oversight of how CDOC operates.
The Particulars
One thing CDOC seems to do well is assess inmates based on their risk to recidivate and level of threat to public safety. But, CDOC falls short in using this information to properly place inmates in appropriate custody levels, Community Corrections programs, and Parole options. Correctly placing inmates saves thousands of dollars per inmate per year. For example, the average annual cost of incarcerating one person in Colorado is $55,717. The cost for the same individual in Community Corrections or Intensive Supervised Parole is $12,032 or $6,270, respectively.
These huge savings can be realized without affecting public safety through simple legislative changes for lower risk inmates. CDOC classifies inmates into 5 categories of risk; very low, low, medium, high and very high. Most inmates classified as very low, low, or medium risk are successful in their reintegration with negligible recidivism rates. However, many of the lower risk inmates are not qualified for reduced supervision soon enough due to legislative constraints. Simple statute adjustments would fix this problem while still maintaining public safety by utilizing the stringent review procedures of Community Corrections and Parole program acceptance.
The Solutions
Here are some legislative actions that could be enacted quickly and efficiently while keeping public safety paramount:
Earned Time: Currently Colorado inmates can earn up to 10 days of “Earned Time” each month for good behavior. An increase of only 5 days per month to 15 days per month, applied retroactively and prospectively, would provide a significant reduction of CDOC’s problems. For perspective, other states like Alabama and Texas, offer substantially more Earned Time (75 days and 45 days per month, respectively) than Colorado does.
Community Corrections Eligibility: Community Corrections, commonly called the “Halfway House”, is a supervised re-entry into society. Currently inmates are eligible for this program 16 months before their Parole Eligibility Date (PED) if their crime is classified as non-violent, or 6 months before their PED if their crime is classified as violent. Inmates must apply, be thoroughly vetted, and accepted by both the County’s Corrections Board and the Community Corrections facility before placement to maintain public safety. Increasing the eligibility date to 28 months (as prior law stated) for non-violent, and 18 months for violent classifications allows lower risk inmates who are ready to transition to go through the application and vetting process.
Intensive Supervised Parole – Inmate (ISP-I) Eligibility: Some inmates do not need to re-enter society through Community Corrections because they have no programming needs. These inmates are ready for re-entry, but are forced to wait until 6 months before their PED, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. Inmates eligible for ISP-I apply for the program, are vetted by CDOC, and go before the Parole Board to ensure they are not a threat to public safety. Increasing the eligibility period to 18 months prior to the inmate’s PED allows lower risk, Parole Board approved inmates to successfully transition to society and removes additional financial burdens and CDOC staffing needs.
Achievement Earned Time: Achievement Earned Time is awarded to inmates who successfully complete rehabilitative programs, educational milestones, and vocational or collegiate courses. This reward for positive accomplishments is limited to 120 days. Why? Why place a limit on outcomes we want inmates to obtain? This limit should be removed to allow more rehabilitation rewards. The truth is 95% of people in Colorado prisons will be released at some point. We certainly want to be sure they have completed as much rehabilitation as needed to ensure their success as our future neighbors.
Four simple legislative adjustments would save Colorado taxpayers over $43 million dollars each and every year, without negatively impacting public safety. These are common sense solutions to avoid a literal catastrophe in our Department of Corrections. I think it is time we all ask for more common sense solutions like these from our government, don’t you?