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| Foreign Inmates Busting Budgets |
| By Kirk Mitchell:, Denver Post |
| Published: 06/06/2011 |
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Criminals find their way to Colorado prisons from Mongolia, Iraq, the Czech Republic, the Fiji Islands and 75 other nations. Those foreign inmates will likely be eligible for deportation as soon as their sentences are complete. In the meantime, they are among the fastest-growing segments of the state's prison population and a growing drain on already-scarce resources at the Department of Corrections. Since 2005, the number of Colorado's foreign-born inmates has increased 51 percent to 1,953. Those with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers have more than doubled in 10 years from 680 to 1,500, said Tom Clements, executive director of the state Department of Corrections. "That's huge," Clements said. Managing inmates who don't speak English requires interpreters. It is more costly and adds to the complexity of running prisons, he said. While the cost for holding such inmates continues to rise, financial support that Colorado receives from the federal government is decreasing. In a 2010 letter to federal authorities, state Attorney General John Suthers decried the $58 million price tag for holding the prisoners in fiscal year 2008. It costs more than $30,000 a year to house each of the inmates. At the time, the federal government's State Criminal Alien Assistance Program reimbursed Colorado $3.3 million, or about 6 percent of the state's costs. The amount has since dropped to $2.9 million even as the number of foreign inmates continues to rise. In 1996, by comparison, Colorado got $5.3 million from the same program and had only 618 foreign-born inmates, less than a third of the current number. "To receive less than full reimbursement for the use of state facilities to house illegal immigrants is an unacceptable, unfunded federal mandate," Suthers said. The most efficient way to reduce that population, and the expense, would be to turn over inmates who are eligible for deportation to federal authorities so they can be sent home. Parole-board solution Senate Bill 241, passed this year and sponsored by Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, and Steve King, R-Grand Junction, urges the Colorado parole board to parole "non-violent" foreign inmates with detainers who pose a medium risk of reoffending. The bill says there will be a "presumption" subject to parole-board discretion that such offenders will be turned over to ICE for deportation. Clements said his staff is determining how many inmates fall under the parameters of the bill and will present their names to the parole board. If ICE does not deport the inmates, the board could rescind the parole. "It's not mandatory," Clements said. "The parole board can look at that and make a discretionary call." Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said that in March 2009, the state changed a policy in which it would put foreign-born inmates on inactive parole when those inmates were turned over to ICE. What was happening was that ICE would deport the offenders and they would return to California, Thornton said. In 2007, California revoked paroles for 1,600 offenders who returned to the state after being deported and returned them to prison. Under the new policy, foreign-born prisoners are discharged from parole when they are turned over to ICE after their prison sentences. If the offenders return to California, they can be prosecuted only for federal immigration violations and serve time in a federal prison, Thornton said. It saved $10 million annually in prison costs, she said. In Texas, violation to stay Texas is pursuing a different solution. The Texas House and Senate have passed HB 2734, and the bill is awaiting the governor's signature to become law. It would require the Texas parole board to make being an illegal immigrant a parole violation — essentially forcing a released inmate to leave the state or face a return to prison, even if ICE fails to deport them. Currently, after Texas transfers illegal immigrants to ICE, the federal agency doesn't always deport the offenders and simply releases them in Texas. They often get picked up on new charges and clog state prisons. The new law was billed as a measure that would save millions of dollars by reducing convictions, according to advocates. Carl Rusnok, regional ICE spokesman, said most criminals with ICE detainers are deported but occasionally they are released in Colorado. "It's possible," Rusnok said. "There are many different circumstances. It's on a case-by-case basis." Clements, of the Colorado corrections department, said he plans to have his staff analyze the number of illegal immigrants who have repeatedly cycled through the state's prisons. Like Suthers, his preference would be to have the federal government follow through on deportation. But, knowing that won't always happen, he thinks keeping even illegal immigrants on parole status provides the leverage needed to prevent them from committing new crimes if they remain in, or return to, the state. "Foremost, I think we have to be concerned about safety," Clements said. Read More. |
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