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July 26, 2007
Costs causing Colorado to consider changes
This effective article in the Rocky Mountain News, entitled "As inmate numbers swell, state scrambles for relief: Commission seeks ways to overhaul buckling system," provides some amazing statistics on Colorado's recent prison growth and the costs of this growth. Here are excerpts:
Colorado faces a nearly 25 percent increase in prison inmates during the next six years, a growth rate that has prompted a new look at how punishment is administered in the state. Unless lawmakers reverse the emphasis on incarceration, analysts now say, prisons can expect to house nearly 28,000 inmates in 2013, compared with 22,519 as of June 30, according to a report by the Division of Criminal Justice.
The financial ramifications are substantial.
- Each inmate costs state taxpayers an estimated $27,500 a year.
- The cost of corrections has shot up from 4 percent of the state's budget to 9 percent since 1993.
- The Department of Corrections' budget is more than $702 million, compared with $57 million in 1985.
The trend is so alarming that the state is preparing to launch a 26-member commission to study possible overhauls of how criminals are punished and for how long.
July 26, 2007 at 09:38 AM | Permalink
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