This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at coloradosun.com.
State budget writers this week opted to contract with a private prison company to reopen and operate one of their shuttered facilities somewhere in Colorado to handle a projected increase in inmates.
But the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee stopped short of spending the millions of dollars it would take to immediately start the process.
Instead, the panel on Tuesday directed the governor’s office to submit an emergency funding request to contract with a private prison company should the state run out of prison space. That’s projected to happen in the next year.
The JBC voted to allow the state to spend about $115 per inmate per day at that new facility which is about double the per-inmate rate it currently pays CoreCivic, Colorado’s lone private prison provider.
The state estimates it will cost $6 million to get the private prison up and running and about $40 million each year afterward to operate it and house about 700 inmates. It’s unclear which shuttered private prison in Colorado could be reopened and which private prison provider the state will contract with.
The Joint Budget Committee, in pursuing the new agreement, rejected Gov. Jared Polis’ plan for the state to buy a closed prison in southern Colorado from a private company and operate it itself. The governor’s office estimated that would cost up to $200 million.
The spending decision, which still must be approved by the full legislature, comes as the JBC is cutting Medicaid and other social services to address a more than $1.5 billion state budget shortfall. Democrats were hoping to find ways this year to spend less, not more, on the state’s prison system.
The governor’s office had warned lawmakers in recent months that Colorado was likely to need a new prison in the coming years, but it said the decision could wait until after Polis leaves office in early 2027. Then, last month, the governor’s office abruptly told the JBC that more prison space is needed as soon as possible.
The governor’s office gave the JBC two options: spend between $150 million and $200 million to purchase and renovate the Huerfano County Correctional Center in Walsenburg, which closed in 2010, or pay a private prison company to reopen and operate a closed facility.
The Huerfano County Correctional Center and the Kit Carson Correctional Center in Burlington, which closed in 2016, are two of the most likely candidates. Both are owned by CoreCivic.
CoreCivic already owns and operates the Bent County Correctional Facility and Crowley County Correctional Facility on behalf of Colorado. Both are at capacity.
The state used to contract with the GEO Group to operate the Cheyenne Mountain Reentry Center in Colorado Springs. The company ended its contract and closed the facility in 2020.
The governor’s office said if the legislature doesn’t approve spending on a new prison, Colorado will face dire consequences in the next year. The Department of Corrections, which last year activated its prison management plan for the first time because of near overcrowding, is already contracting with county jails to hold about 700 inmates because there isn’t room in state prisons.
Without a new prison, that so-called jail backlog will grow. Mark Ferrandino, Polis’ budget chief, warned that counties will eventually stop taking people.
The rise in the state’s prison population has been years in the making.
Advocates have been raising the alarm bells since at least 2023. A December report from the Joint Budget Committee staff warned: “Releases have dropped sharply as admissions have stayed fairly consistent. The result is the largest projected increase in the last 14 years, with the exception of a post-pandemic rebound in FY 2021-22.”
And the Colorado Department of Corrections is already understaffed.
Ferrandino said it would be up to the private prison company that operates the reopened facility to find staff.
The move to reopen a private prison marks a major departure from one of the governor’s key promises from 2018 when he was campaigning for his first term.
“I will end our investment in private prisons and reinvest those dollars into rehabilitation, diversion, alternative and restorative justice programs,” he said at the time.
The JBC can approve an emergency supplemental when the full legislature is not in session. Its decision to ask the governor’s office to submit one all but guarantees the request will pass when it comes.
The current lawmaking term, which began in January, ends in mid-May.
In a written statement, Eric Maryuma, a spokesperson for Polis, said the governor was grateful for the JBC’s action.
“While the governor hopes that the state adds public prison capacity, Gov. Polis appreciates the JBC’s work to balance public safety and the difficult budget decisions,” he said. “Increasing our prison capacity to meet our needs is an important part of keeping Colorado safe and we will work to ensure that we make the best use of limited state funding in a sustainable way for the future, and we are appreciative of the partnership with the Joint Budget Committee to meet our capacity needs.”
