The Take Two program was paused following an inmate escape earlier this year. Employers, already battling a tight labor market, say they were given no time to plan for the loss of labor.
Dean Williams
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Crime and Courts, Health, News
Coronavirus lockdowns in prisons test limits of Colorado’s rules on solitary confinement
Last summer, Matthew Harter, a 50-year-old from Lakewood, was incarcerated at Centennial Correctional Facility South, a prison in Cañon City, when he started to have trouble breathing. Harter didn’t have COVID-19. He had anxiety, he said, because he was in quarantine, alone in his cell, which was about the size of a parking space, for […]
Posted inCOVID, News, Politics and Government
Colorado is offering prison staff $500 to get COVID-19 vaccines in effort to boost low inoculation rates
The Colorado Department of Corrections has announced it will provide $500 to all employees among its more than 6,000 staff members who get fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. “I don’t think it’s offensive to say, ‘look, it’s such a public safety concern that we’re going to provide an incentive for you to get the vaccine,’” […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Gov. Polis said he wanted to close a private prison. GEO Group beat him to it, leaving Colorado scrambling.
After months of saying it wanted to close a private prison in Colorado Springs, the Polis administration got the surprise news on Tuesday that GEO Group will be shuttering the facility on its own, leaving hundreds of inmates and employees in limbo. GEO announced it will close the Cheyenne Mountain Reentry Center in just 60 […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, Politics and Government
Colorado’s prison budget nears $1 billion as inmate population grows. Frustrated leaders wanted action yesterday.
The number of inmates in Colorado is growing, and the total spent annually on corrections is approaching $1 billion for the first time. The latest data suggest the trendlines are projected to only continue despite bipartisan efforts at the Capitol a year ago to cut costs and reduce the prison population to boost parole and […]