Colorado lawmakers voted Wednesday to send millions of dollars to the state’s overcrowded prison system, one week after a key committee rejected the funds and demanded that Gov. Jared Polis provide a plan to release more eligible inmates.
No plan has yet materialized, but lawmakers on the Joint Budget Committee said they were swayed by safety concerns in the prisons and county jails — and by a new willingness from Polis’ staff to discuss prison overcrowding. The committee voted to fully fund payments to jails, which have housed some offenders as a backup, and for medical payments.
Its members also approved $2.4 million to immediately pay for nearly 800 more prison beds.
All four of the committee’s Democrats — who had rejected all or parts of the Department of Corrections‘ requests last week — voted with Republicans to fully fund jails and medical costs. Three of the four also voted to fund more prison beds. In all, the committee approved most of what had been held up, roughly $14 million, for the Corrections Department.
“It does sound like our initial denial got some traction,” said Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat who chairs the committee. “But we’ve not seen anything really presented — certainly nowhere near any kind of a plan. But we have to make decisions on a supplemental (funding request) to act on something that is happening now.”
Colorado’s prisons are expected to surpass their capacity for male inmates in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, as discretionary parole has decreased. Last week, the committee’s Democratic members said that, in years past, they’d repeatedly sought support from Polis to expedite the release of inmates who are deemed safe and eligible to leave prison, particularly as the prison system’s annual budget now surpasses $1 billion.
Jeff Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat, said Wednesday that his concerns remained. But he said he’d received assurances from Polis’ office that “it will be different this time.”
Sen. Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat, was less certain.
She said 700 people in state prisons could be released, but they were still in prison because they didn’t have housing or placements set up or because they still hadn’t received the treatment they needed before they could leave. She warned that if the state didn’t tackle its overcrowding issue, the legislature would soon be asked to find “hundreds of millions of dollars” to build a new prison or reopen one that’s closed.
Senate Democrats have proposed a bill that would expedite the release of some inmates. Mark Ferrandino, Polis’ budget director, said Monday that the administration was working on a bill that would change a program that releases inmates who were convicted when they were younger and have spent years in prison.
Polis has the authority to grant releases under that program, but he has unilaterally stopped approving them in recent years. Ferrandino said the governor wants that authority shifted elsewhere.
“We are here committed to having open and honest dialogue with members about those issues, that legislation, what we can do,” Ferrandino told the committee earlier this week. “We are open to ways to move people out of prison, especially (those who are) nonviolent and won’t increase public risk or public safety risk.”
Wednesday’s vote means more money will immediately flow to the Corrections Department to pay for more beds, for medical care and for jail payments. Lawmakers will soon be tasked with setting the department’s budget for next year, and Bridges said the budget committee could use its control over budget-setting to ensure Polis’ office was serious about its commitment to tackle overcrowding.
Criminal justice reform advocates, who had praised last week’s funding rejections, were less pleased by what one called Wednesday’s “stunning” reversal.
“The question for the members who switched their votes is simple: What do Coloradans actually get from this decision?” Kyle Giddings, of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, said in a statement. ” … The Joint Budget Committee is setting the stage for Coloradans to inherit more concrete and barbed wire, instead of investing in the things that actually help communities thrive.”
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