Members of the State Wildland Inmate Fire Team help fight some of Colorado’s largest fires. A 2021 law was supposed to smooth their path toward a full-time firefighting career, but none have been hired or have even applied.
inmates
Posted inCrime and Courts, News
Colorado’s first prison internet radio program begins airing from behind bars
Clad in a forest green jumpsuit and large headphones over his ears, Anthony Quintana leans into the microphone and welcomes listeners to Colorado’s first statewide prison internet radio station. He’s been behind bars for 33 years, isolated from family and the outside world, but today his voice can reach most cells in Colorado’s state prison […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
How expensive is it to call Colorado jails and prisons? Lawmakers want to find out.
The $9 that Jim Anthony paid for each video visit with his jailed son last year was expensive, but the best way he could make sure his son got to know his own child, after the coronavirus pandemic shut down in-person visits to the jail. But several of the calls dropped after a minute or […]
Posted inCOVID, Crime and Courts, News
Colorado judges denied many “compassionate release” requests during pandemic
Out of dozens of requests for sentence reductions from inmates with health concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic, federal judges in Colorado approved just three in the final four months of 2020. Judges have the power to apply legal criteria differently when weighing requests for so-called compassionate release, Colorado Politics reported Sunday. Federal inmates can petition […]
Posted inCOVID, Crime and Courts, Health, News
“Of course it feels unsafe”: Colorado prisons face staffing crisis as scores of guards, inmates catch coronavirus
By Allison Sherry, CPR News Throughout the month of December, Gov. Jared Polis has considered asking the National Guard to help with basic operations inside the state’s prisons — laundry, meal preparation, trash removal — because massive COVID-19 outbreaks among correctional officers and inmates have sparked a staffing crisis. Last week, there were almost 400 […]
Posted inCOVID, Crime and Courts, News
Colorado prisoner dies after having coronavirus-like symptoms
Another inmate from a Colorado prison has died after suffering coronavirus-like symptoms. The 58-year-old man, who was being housed at Fremont Correctional Facility, died Tuesday at Littleton Adventist Hospital. He had been moved to a hospital in Cañon City on Oct. 14 after having symptoms consistent with COVID-19 and was later transferred to Littleton Adventist. […]
Posted inCOVID, News, Politics and Government
Colorado governor defends prison system, accuses ACLU of using coronavirus to push its agenda
Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday defended steps taken by his administration to prevent the coronavirus from spreading in Colorado prisons, saying groups urging him to do more to protect inmates are using the public health crisis to advance a broader agenda. “It’s no surprise that there are some in the advocacy community that want to […]
Posted inCOVID, Crime and Courts, Health, News, Politics and Government
Coronavirus infections in prisons threaten to choke rural hospitals
By LJ Dawson, Kaiser Health News As the COVID-19 pandemic swept into Montana, it spread into the Marias Heritage Center assisted living facility, then flowed into the nearby 21-bed hospital. Toole County quickly became the state’s hot spot for COVID-19 deaths, with more than four times the infection rate of all other counties and the […]
Posted inColoradans, News
A volunteer army has answered Colorado’s need for masks. Denver’s jails are one recent beneficiary.
When the new coronavirus emerged in Colorado, the Denver Sheriff Department knew it would need protective masks to limit the spread of the illness in the close quarters of its Downtown Detention Center and in the larger Denver County Jail on Smith Road. Disposable surgical masks donated by the Denver Health Foundation filled the immediate […]
Posted inCOVID, News
138 inmates at prison in northeast Colorado test positive for coronavirus
A large outbreak of the new coronavirus has been reported at a prison in northeast Colorado after weeks of efforts by law enforcement officials to reduce the risk of a cluster among jail and prison inmates statewide. At least 138 inmates at the Sterling Correctional Facility, out of 255 test results that have been returned, […]