Colorado lawmakers passed two bills Thursday and are still considering a third aimed at reducing the state’s prison population, which has ballooned to the point where Gov. Jared Polis is recommending reopening up to two prisons.
It’s difficult to say whether the bills, which Polis has yet to sign, can cut the prison population enough to offset the Department of Corrections’ space needs this year. But they represent the legislature’s latest effort to reduce the number of incarcerated Coloradans, which has increased 19% since 2021 even as crime rates have fallen.
“This is part of the bigger conversation we’re having this year about the need to manage our prison population with public safety and the state budget reality in mind,” said Sen. Mike Weissman, D-Aurora, who is sponsoring all three bills.
The effort comes as lawmakers have approved an increase of about $69 million in the corrections budget for the coming fiscal year, for a total budget of nearly $1.2 billion, including the addition of 941 prison beds. It was a bitter pill for lawmakers to swallow in a year with a $1.5 billion budget shortfall that forced them to make difficult cuts to Medicaid and social services for some of the state’s most vulnerable residents.
At a Democratic caucus meeting earlier this month, Rep. Kyle Brown, D-Louisville, warned his colleagues that if they want to change the budget situation, they would need to start passing bills to reduce the prison population.
“If the General Assembly is serious about changing that dynamic, then we need to pass laws that will change when people get out, that will make sure that they get the treatment that they need, that will turn our correction system not into just our security system with a rehabilitation problem, but a real system that is performing and rehabilitating and getting folks out into the community safely,” he said.
Eric Maruyama, a spokesperson for Polis, said the measures are not enough to address the state’s prison capacity needs.
“Population management strategies alone, such as those in the legislation you highlight, help, but are not enough by themselves to address our capacity needs,” Maruyama said in a statement. “Increasing capacity is also necessary to ensure the safety of offenders and staff.”
One bill that lawmakers passed, Senate Bill 158, would give the parole board, not just the governor, the power to release people from prison who committed a felony offense when they were under the age of 21. That bill passed the House with the support of all of the Democrats and three Republicans — Reps. Stephanie Luck of Penrose, Matt Soper of Delta and Brandi Bradley of Littleton.
Fiscal analysts at the Capitol do not anticipate it will meaningfully change the state’s prison population. Just 11 people have completed the required programming over the last two years. They are awaiting a decision from the governor on their release, according to the analysts.
The other bill that lawmakers passed, Senate Bill 159, would change how earned time is calculated for certain people in prison. It passed the House with the support of all but two Democrats — Reps. Sheila Lieder of Littleton and Bob Marshall of Highlands Ranch. The bill would make more prisoners eligible for reducing the amount of time on their sentence. Fiscal analysts did not estimate the bill’s impact on the prison population because earned time depends on the behavior of people incarcerated and the discretion of the DOC.
The third bill, Senate Bill 36, which is awaiting a hearing in the House Appropriations Committee, would require the parole board to consider more people for release when the state’s prison system reaches a new, more conservative overcrowding threshold. Given the parole board’s rate of approving people for release, fiscal analysts estimate the bill would result in only 17 additional people being released.
Weissman was more optimistic about the bills’ impact, saying Senate Bill 36 could result in a couple hundred people being released.
“Is it likely that we avoid having to contract for more beds? Look, I think we have a decent chance,” he said. “These three measures will only help. They only point in one direction. They only improve the odds. The more money that we end up needing to spend on corrections, the less there is on a lot of other things that people care about and want us to spend money on around here.”
The number of prisoners these bills could potentially release pales in comparison to the state’s jail backlog. At the end of March, the backlog or the number of people the DOC was holding in county jails instead of in prisons, was nearly 700.
A dramatic decrease in the number of people in prison being granted parole and a slew of recent laws that lengthen prison sentences is causing Colorado’s adult prison population to outstrip capacity. Without another prison, Polis’ office said earlier this year, the DOC would have to house more than 100 people on sled beds — plastic floor cots — in a gym.
It’s not that the state is sentencing more people to prison. New admissions are expected to decrease by 3% this fiscal year and crime rates have fallen.
But the state isn’t letting as many people out as it could. By the end of June, the DOC’s most recent projection shows the state paroling 12% fewer prisoners this fiscal year compared with last.
A recent DOC audit shows about 4,600 people — more than one-fourth of adults incarcerated in state and private prisons — are past their parole eligibility dates. Staff in charge of programming incarcerated people need to complete to gain parole are routinely reassigned to security posts because of staffing shortages.
And in recent years lawmakers and voters have passed policies to enhance punishments and create new crimes, including Proposition 128. Approved by voters in 2024, the law extends prison time for people convicted of some violent crimes.
In March, the governor’s office shocked lawmakers, saying they would need to approve funding to immediately reopen one, possibly two, prisons to handle the projected increase in the prison population.
Instead, lawmakers gave Polis permission to engage in negotiations with a private prison company to reopen and manage one of their shuttered facilities, at an estimated startup cost of $6 million and then an annual cost of $40 million. Lawmakers signaled they will approve an emergency funding request if and when adding a prison becomes necessary, even if it comes when the legislature isn’t in session.
The June prison population forecast will provide more clarity on just how much more prison space the state needs and how soon.
This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and The Colorado Sun, with support from news outlets throughout the state. Startup funding for the Alliance was provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.