A $45-million, controversial plan to turn a now-vacant, rural campus that previously housed teens in the criminal justice and foster care systems into a “recovery campus” for the homeless passed its first Capitol hearing Monday. A committee voted 4-3 to advance the measure despite festering questions about why Gov. Jared Polis’ administration shut down the […]
Rite of Passage
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Colorado governor eyes former youth corrections campus for new homeless recovery center
WATKINS — On the treeless flatlands east of Denver, in a field of yellow-brown weeds that feels like the middle of nowhere, sits an empty campus with seven dormitories, 500 beds, a cafeteria, a gym and a football field. Gov. Jared Polis has big plans for the place, a state-owned facility that for two decades […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Colorado hires private investigators to find teens who went missing when the state abruptly closed a youth center
When state child welfare officials arrived at a now-closed youth center to collect teenagers and send them to other placements, surprised kids scattered into the fields surrounding the residential facility in Watkins. A month later, two teenage boys are still missing. And in the aftermath of what critics are calling a botched operation to abruptly […]