State lawmakers on the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee voted Wednesday to reject the Colorado Department of Corrections’ request for 788 new prison beds, saying the proposal failed to address severe staffing shortages and ongoing delays in releasing people who are already eligible for parole.
Corrections said they needed $2.4 million for the additional beds because the “male inmate population is much higher than the current budget anticipated.”
But the committee’s Democrats questioned why the department didn’t present a more comprehensive plan to tackle the staffing shortages and parole delays driving overcrowding.
“Until there is a plan or plans to address why the releases are lagging the admissions and why that's changed and what we can do about that, it's very hard for me to support more beds,” Sen. Judy Amabile said.
Reps. Kyle Brown and Emily Sirota echoed Amabile’s concerns during the hearing.
Republicans on the committee, Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer and Rep. Rick Taggart, voted to approve the request. They both shared some of Amabile’s concerns about the lack of planning from Corrections, but warned the state will ultimately have to pay the costs anyway.
“I don't disagree that there needs to be better planning,” Kirkmeyer said. “But the issue is this, it’s not going away. I don't know that holding up funding is necessarily the way to go. I mean, I guess it's a big, huge slap on their wrist.”
The committee voted 4-2 along party lines to deny the request.
Kyle Giddings, deputy director of the advocacy group Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, said after the hearing the committee’s decision reflects mounting frustration with Corrections’ policies and how state prisons are being managed.
"The big questions are, why aren't people being let out as much on discretionary parole like they were in the past? Why is DOC coming in asking for all these beds when the staffing isn't there to staff those beds?”Kyle Giddings, deputy director of the advocacy group Colorado Criminal Justice Reform
“The big questions are, why aren't people being let out as much on discretionary parole like they were in the past? Why is DOC [Department of Corrections] coming in asking for all these beds when the staffing isn't there to staff those beds?” Giddings said. “There's also 5,000 people inside of DOC past their parole eligibility dates. Why aren't we working on getting those folks out and fixing technical parole violations?”
Giddings said Corrections’ stricter penalties for minor parole violations, like missed appointments, are fueling what he’s called a “crisis in corrections.”
Colorado WINS, the union that represents more than 5,000 Corrections’ employees, also opposed the bed expansion. Executive director Hilary Glasgow said the statewide union has historically supported bed requests but could not do so this year because of such dire staffing shortages.
“When you put someone in prison, you have to have staff who are there to help run the systems of the prisons,” Glasgow said. “At its best, the prison can be a place for rehabilitation, and at its worst, it's a warehouse. Right now, we're somewhere in between.”
Glasgow said the lack of staff has led Corrections to assign non-security employees, including teachers, case managers, and maintenance workers, to serve in correctional officer roles.
Lawmakers on the Joint Budget Committee left open the possibility that the Department of Corrections could return later in the legislative session with a revised budget request, but Democratic members said they want to see a comprehensive plan from the department and the governor’s office before approving additional beds or funding.
Colorado’s Prison Population Management Plan is also still in effect. It was activated for the first time in August because state prisons were more than 97% full for 30 straight days. According to Corrections officials’ last update, Colorado prisons were still nearly 98% full as of December.
