As if things weren’t bad enough these days, it now appears we have a critical math problem in Colorado.
It goes like this:
Even though the state has a falling crime rate and even though fewer people are being sent to prison, which would seem to be good news, it looks as if we’ll now be adding a new prison.
And why? Because, we’re being told, prisons are overcrowded today and are expected to become more overcrowded soon, meaning we’re in desperate and immediate need of more prison beds, even though fewer people are being sent to prison.
Or at least that’s how term-limited Gov. Jared Polis explained it, even while saying that one new prison might not be enough. And even though he had earlier told the legislature that the overcrowding issue could wait for the new governor to take office next year. But now he is citing safety concerns, and who among us is not in favor of more safety?
Many legislators were shocked and surprised by Polis’ request and, in some cases, appalled. I was all of that, but mostly confused.
I was an OK math student back in the day, but I can’t seem to make the equation work here — fewer people going to prison = the need to house more people in prison?
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Fortunately, Sun reporter Taylor Dolven has taken a terrific deep dive into explaining how this unworkable math is even possible. In the article, she cites prison reform advocates and state legislators and others about how we might approach the crisis, other than more prisons, and what the governor might have been doing the past few years before we hit this crisis stage.
As state Rep. Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, told Dolven, she expected more from Polis than this.
“If a budget is a moral document, is this what your statement is?” Bacon said. “I’m concerned that the default is to keep people incarcerated on this theme of safety, instead of to move people through. … If we had executive leadership who wanted to do these things, he’d figure out how to do it.”
Yes. And yes. And maybe another yes.
Look, I don’t doubt that there’s overcrowding and understaffing in the Department of Corrections (DOC), but I also wonder what Polis has been actually doing about it. I mean, other than threatening to commute the sentence of remorse-free election grifter Tina Peters. You think there are enough election grifters in Colorado prisons to make a difference? I don’t know. Maybe after the coming midterms.
As a start to reducing the prison population — and maybe even spending less on prisons — we might consider paroling some of those now behind bars who are not Tina Peters. According to the DOC, it is expecting a 12% decrease in paroles this fiscal year from last.
Wait, it gets worse. Also, according to the DOC, there are around 4,600 people in prison who are past their parole eligibility dates. That’s more than a quarter of adults in the state prison population. Not all of them, or nearly all of them, should be set free. But couldn’t we find maybe a few hundred to address Polis’ concern that, if nothing is done, as many as 100 prisoners would have to sleep on cots in the gym?
Budget math is always hard, especially of late. The concept of adding a new prison — much worse, two — is harder. As Polis promised during his first campaign for governor, way back in 2018, we needed to end contracts with private prisons and, crucially, find more and better alternatives to prison. And it wasn’t that long ago, as I recall, that we were actually closing prisons.
But the state legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, reluctantly caving to Polis, has proposed allowing the governor to negotiate with a private prison company to manage one of its shuttered prisons — at a startup cost of $6 million and then $40 million annually. Polis was ready to spend to buy one of the shuttered prisons and manage, but the JBC didn’t go for millions more that plan would need. The full legislature still needs to act on that.
I’m sure everyone on the JBC panel is painfully aware that money for prisons — and this is easy math — might be better spent going to one of Colorado’s many other needs, including, say, the state’s subsidized child care program, which is apparently on the brink of collapse.
It’s no secret that the state is facing yet another billion-dollar-plus budget shortfall. To get to a legally required balanced budget, the JBC is proposing a huge cut to Medicaid and other services for the poor and underserved.
You can blame Donald Trump’s Medicaid cuts and his war on Colorado, denying funds whenever possible, for some of this. You can also blame TABOR — and its restrictions on raising taxes during a time of crisis, or even in times not of crisis. You can blame voters for going to the polls to expand prison sentences for more crimes.
You can certainly blame the economic situation — rising inflation, rising gas prices, rising costs of housing, if you can find any affordable housing — for budget shortfalls, both federally and in the states.
In light of the national economic crisis, Trump, with his Israeli allies, started a war of choice in Iran, costing many billions.
In light of the state economic crisis, which is, of course, hitting the poorest the hardest, Polis says we need another prison as the legislature faces a $1.5 billion budget shortfall.
I’m not comparing Polis to Trump. Seriously. I’m pretty sure the governor isn’t bombing any countries, feuding with a pope or, for that matter, likening himself to a major religious figure. In fact, as we know, Trump — who does all these things — hates Polis because Tina Peters is still in prison.
And in Trump’s latest attack on Colorado, he just rejected Polis’ request for emergency FEMA funding for two natural disasters in the state — the 137,000 acres burned in Rio Blanco County and the severe flooding in several Western Slope counties.
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According to state officials, it’s the first time in 35 years that FEMA has denied Colorado federal assistance in such cases. Coincidence?
Whether it is or not, it’s more money the state won’t be getting while we add a prison that reform advocates don’t want, that the union representing prison workers doesn’t want, that many in the state legislature — including most of the Democratic caucus — don’t want. That many of you, I’d bet, don’t want.
In the few weeks remaining in the legislative session, there are several last-minute bills proposed to address, in part, the prison overcrowding. One bill calls for the DOC to formulate a plan to manage prison capacity — by December.
In other words, and this may not be a coincidence either, the legislators would like to see the plan about a month before a new governor is inaugurated.
That may not be strictly a math question. But it definitely adds up.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
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