Department of Corrections

The Department of Corrections says it needs money to fund additional beds. But Colorado lawmakers don’t want to keep writing short-term checks without a long-term plan.

Lawmakers rejected a request to add hundreds of new prison beds, saying the state must first address staffing shortages and parole backlogs.

Colorado’s prisons are understaffed and overcrowded, pushing inmates into county jails. The state’s emergency plan is now active, but local leaders say it’s only a temporary fix.

In the last six years, more than 3,500 pages of sexual harassment complaints have been filed against the Kentucky Department of Corrections. Increasingly, victims are taking to the courts.