Partisan battle brews on prisons

Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jan 14, 2001 | by Kyle Henley

DENVER - While lawmakers fight over money for public schools and highway improvements, the need for more prisons is growing.

The Department of Corrections predicts the number of inmates housed in Colorado's 22 prisons will increase 50 percent in the next five years, jumping from 16,000 in 2000 to 24,000 by 2006.

According to those projections, Colorado will need 1,300 more prison beds by 2006.

"The projected shortfall is very troubling," said House Speaker Doug Dean, R-Colorado Springs. "We must begin to address this issue."

The fact that many parolees are violating the conditions of their release - usually because they are caught using alcohol or drugs - and landing back behind bars isn't helping.

The number of prisoners incarcerated in Colorado is increasing by 7.2 percent each year, while the national average is 5.2 percent a year.

With court dockets backed up and Gov. Bill Owens calling for 24 new district court judges to handle the backlog of criminal cases, Colorado's need for prisons isn't going to slow down anytime soon.

Two options are surfacing: Fork over the cash to build another prison, whether it is publicly or privately run, or change the sentencing laws so that fewer criminals go to prison and the ones who do get released sooner.

The partisan battle lines already are being drawn.

Republicans favor building new prisons, even though they know it will mean hard budget choices, potentially this year.

"If you talk to district attorneys across our state, you will learn that the inmates who are in prison belong there," Dean said.

"In Colorado, we do not put people behind bars for less than the right reason, and I don't believe in letting criminals out of prison because there is no other option."

Owens quietly has been telling people across the state that he supports building new prisons rather than letting criminals go early or letting them off with shorter sentences. The average sentence in Colorado is 5.4 years.

Given the state's tight budget and the restraints of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, however, the state is struggling to pay for many things, and prisons are a small chunk compared with the construction needs of higher education and highways.

Senate President Stan Matsunaka said Owens knows that the state will have to prioritize projects.

"If the governor wants more prisons and there isn't enough money for new prisons, then what is the alternative?" he said.

For Matsunaka and other Senate Democrats, that means looking at all options, including changes in criminal justice laws to reduce the time criminals spend in prison.

That discussion has taken a back seat to Owens' latest calls for tax cuts and money for education and transportation.

- Kyle Henley can be reached at (303) 837-0613 or khenley@gazette.com