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| Colorado Plans Prison for Violent Inmates |
| By Denver Post |
| Published: 12/23/2002 |
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A plan is in the works to build an $80 million maximum-security state prison to house violent Colorado inmates, whose numbers are skyrocketing behind the walls while places to put them are nearly filled. The new 750-bed lockup would be paid for through the sale of bonds, the governor's chief economist, Nancy McCallin, said Wednesday. 'It's no secret that the Department of Corrections has said it might run out of high-security beds in 1 to two years,' McCallin said. 'The new prison would be for the high-risk population, prisoners with a history of violence. To keep them from being a danger to officers and other prisoners, we need to have them locked down.' The new prison would be a 'CSP II,' McCallin said, referring to the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City where the most-violent offenders are housed. Inmates such as 35-year-old Edward Montour, a convicted murderer accused of bludgeoning to death a prison officer at the Limon Correctional Facility in October, are there. So is death row. McCallin said the Department of Corrections is short about 800 beds for maximum-security inmates in a total system of 23 state-run prisons and four run by private companies. The current maximum-security penitentiary, built at a cost of about $60 million, was opened in 1993 and houses 756 prisoners, the worst of the worst, in steel-walled cells with little human contact for 23 of 24 hours a day. Incoming House Speaker Lola Spradley said she plans to carry legislation seeking approval to sell 'certificates of participation' to fund the new prison's construction. The certificates are bonds that receive annual appropriations and have been used in the past to fund prisons and other buildings. McCallin said that because the bonds are tax-free, the state could get an interest rate below 4 percent. The new prison would most likely be built on state-owned prison property, possibly in Canon City, where many of the state's other prisons are located, Spradley said. After the October prison slaying of 23-year-old officer Sgt. Eric Autobee, Gov. Bill Owens announced that prisons would be exempt from future budget cuts and, in fact, would receive a 12 percent increase next year despite a current budget shortfall of $400 million. Lawmakers have said that legislature should look at other needs of the state before committing money to more prisons such as examining sentencing laws in an effort to slow the need for prison construction. A corrections spokeswoman said the new prison, which would take up to 36 months to build, is needed to meet the needs of the current, not the future, population of violent inmates, whom she described as 'younger, braver and brasher.' |
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It would be nice to see how this story has changed over the years. I enjoyed reading more about our prison system on this website. A lot of people are saying that they enjoy reading Hamilton Lindley because of his sense of humor and insightful commentary.