Where people in prison come from: The geography of mass incarceration in Colorado by Emily Widra and Christie Donner One of the most important criminal legal system disparities in Colorado has long been difficult to decipher: Which communities throughout the state do incarcerated people come from? Anyone who lives in or works within heavily policed and incarcerated communities intuitively knows that certain neighborhoods disproportionately experience incarceration. But data have never been available to quantify how many people from each community are imprisoned with any real precision. But now, thanks to redistricting reform that ensures incarcerated people are counted correctly in the legislative districts they come from, we can understand the geography of incarceration in Colorado. Colorado is one of over a dozen states that have ended prison gerrymandering, and now count incarcerated people where they legally reside — at their home address — rather than in remote prisons. This type of reform, as we often discuss, is crucial for ending the siphoning of political power from disproportionately Black and Latino communities to pad out the mostly rural, predominantly white regions where prisons are located. And when reforms like Colorado’s are implemented, they bring along a convenient side effect: In order to correctly represent each community’s population counts, states must collect detailed state-wide data on where imprisoned people call home, which is otherwise impossible to access. Using this redistricting data, we found that in Colorado, incarcerated people come from all over the state, but the largest number of imprisoned people are from the state’s large cities of Denver, Aurora, and Colorado Springs. Surprisingly, a handful of less populous and more rural counties — like Alamosa, Bent, and Logan counties — and smaller cities, including Alamosa, Sterling, and Pueblo, have high imprisonment rates as well, suggesting that people all over Colorado are affected by the state’s reliance on mass incarceration. In addition to helping policymakers and advocates effectively bring reentry and diversion resources to these communities, this data has far-reaching implications. Around the country, high imprisonment rates are correlated with other community problems related to poverty, employment, education, and health. Researchers, scholars, advocates, and politicians can use the data in this report to advocate for bringing more resources to their communities. Incarcerated people come from all over Colorado — but disproportionately from some places more than others More than 14,000 Colorado residents are locked up in state prisons, leaving the state with an imprisonment rate of 245 per 100,000 Colorado residents. While no region of Colorado is immune to the consequences of the state’s reliance on mass incarceration, some communities are disproportionately impacted by imprisonment. County trends The most populated counties in Colorado send the most — and a disproportionately large number of — people to prison. The five most populous counties in the state — El Paso, Denver, Arapahoe, Jefferson, and Adams — are home to over 65% of the state’s imprisoned population (over 9,000 imprisoned people), but are home to only 55% of the state’s total population. Alone, Denver County — which consists primarily of the city of Denver — is home to 20% of the imprisoned population in the state (over 2,700 people) but only 12% of the state’s total population. Even compared to other counties with relatively high populations, this county is an outlier. For example, Denver County has two times as many residents as Douglas County — the neighboring county to the south — but is home to 14 times as many people in state prison. 
In our report, we include additional maps and 11 data tables that show exactly where people in prison in Colorado come from, sometimes down to the neighborhood level. In terms of imprisonment rates — the number of people in state prisons per 100,000 county residents — a handful of smaller, more rural counties appear to be imprisoning large portions of their populations as well. For example, Alamosa County has 95 of its 16,376 residents locked up in state prisons, giving us an imprisonment rate of 577 per 100,000. Similarly, while the county of Bent has 21 residents in state prison, because the county population is relatively small, the proportion of people incarcerated is high: the county imprisonment rate is 465 per 100,000. In the more populous counties, thousands of people are incarcerated, but because the county population is so large, the proportion of people incarcerated is slightly lower than in the less populated counties: Denver County has an imprisonment rate of 378 per 100,000 and El Paso County has an imprisonment rate of 325 per 100,000. Those familiar with racial disparities in the criminal legal system may not find these high county imprisonment rates surprising, as we know that Latino and Hispanic communities, and Native American communities, are overrepresented in the state prison population. Members of these communities disproportionately call Alamosa and Bent counties home. For example, Alamosa County’s population is 48% Hispanic or Latino and Bent County’s population is 32% Hispanic or Latino, compared to the statewide population that is 22% Hispanic or Latino. In addition, these two counties have higher percentages of Native American and American Indian residents: 5.5% of Alamosa County residents and almost 4% of Bent County residents are Native American and American Indian, compared to 2% of the statewide Colorado population. Not all small, rural counties are imprisoning residents at the high rates that we see in Alamosa and Bent. Twelve counties — all with populations less than 9,000 — have less than 10 residents in prisons. So while imprisonment rates vary across the state, it is clear that the counties locking up the most residents in state prison are the most populous counties, containing the largest cities. City trends While incarceration affects every part of Colorado, it is particularly concentrated in the two largest Colorado cities: Denver and Colorado Springs, which respectively have 2,712 and 1,829 residents imprisoned. In addition, Aurora — the third largest city — has over 1,000 residents in state prisons. That means these three cities have imprisonment rates over 300 per 100,000 residents. 
In the report, we also provide maps showing incarceration patterns in Aurora and Colorado Springs. In addition to the most populous cities, a number of smaller cities have high imprisonment rates. Pueblo, with a population of almost 112,000, has 684 residents in prison and an imprisonment rate of 612 per 100,000 city residents. Grand Junction — a city with less than 70,000 residents — has 322 residents in state prisons and an imprisonment rate of 489 per 100,000. In addition to high rates of imprisonment, both Pueblo and Grand Junction have higher rates of poverty than the state at large, with 22% of Pueblo residents and 13.5% of Grand Junction residents living below the poverty line, compared to 9% statewide. We know that across the county, people in prison were — before they went to prison — some of the poorest people, and that incarceration fuels the cycle of poverty, suggesting that these smaller Colorado cities are also in need of focused resources and supports to reduce the reliance on the criminal legal system that perpetuates poverty. Neighborhood trends Denver The racial divide runs deep when it comes to incarceration rates in Denver. In neighborhoods with high concentrations of people of color, primarily Black and Latino, larger portions of the populations are imprisoned. Several of these neighborhoods are clustered around Interstate 70 in northern Denver: Northeast Park Hill, Elyria-Swansea, Cole, and Globeville.5 These communities tend to have higher rates of poverty and a larger portion of residents who are Black or Latino than other Denver neighborhoods. For example, in Elyria-Swansea — the Denver neighborhood with the third-highest incarceration rate of 1,176 per 100,000 — residents are more than 80% Latino and approximately 33% live in poverty. High rates of imprisonment in these areas, like high rates of poverty, are likely — at least in part — a symptom of the historical divestment that left residents with limited access to crucial community resources — including community health services, grocery stores, housing support, job training services, and immigration resources. 
There is another cluster of high-incarceration Denver neighborhoods in the western part of the city. Sun Valley, a small neighborhood on the west side of Interstate 25 has the highest neighborhood imprisonment rate in the city: 2,170 per 100,000 residents. Compared to neighborhoods on the eastern side of I-25, this high imprisonment rate is even more startling: in Washington Park West, the imprisonment rate is less than 100 per 100,000. This means that across the highway, residents of Sun Valley are over 20 times more likely to be imprisoned than residents of nearby Washington Park West. Aurora Aurora, the state’s third largest city, has a much larger population of Black residents than the state of Colorado as a whole. In 2021, Colorado’s residents were only 5% Black, while Aurora’s residents were 17% Black. And research has shown that policing tends to be concentrated in neighborhoods composed of people of color, in particular, Black people. This is true in Aurora, where 46% of Black residents have had at least one police interaction over the past 3 years, compared to less than 25% of white residents. A 2021 report from the Colorado Attorney General revealed that “observed law enforcement outcomes for people of color in Aurora differ significantly from those experienced by their white counterparts. These data — particularly for Black individuals — are deeply troubling.” 
Incarceration rates also tend to follow neighborhood divisions in Aurora. Over one-third of Aurora residents in state prison, for example, hail from just five of the city’s more than 90 neighborhoods. All of those high-incarceration rate neighborhoods are located in the northwestern part of the city, are traditionally under-resourced, and have the largest populations of non-white residents in the city. The disparities between these four neighborhoods and other areas of the city are staggering: North Aurora has an imprisonment rate of 791 per 100,000 which is more than six times higher than the rate of imprisonment in the Heather Gardens neighborhood (127 per 100,000). And this is not just true when you compare North Aurora and Heather Gardens: North Aurora’s imprisonment rate is more than six times higher than the rate of 35 other Aurora neighborhoods. With this context, it’s clear that specific neighborhoods — like North Aurora — face the twin challenges of inadequate investment in essential quality of life services and infrastructure and are disproportionately affected by over-policing and mass incarceration in Aurora. While all communities are missing some of their members to imprisonment, in places where large numbers of adults — parents, workers, voters — are locked up, incarceration has a broader community impact. The large number of adults drained from a relatively small number of geographical areas seriously impacts the health and stability of the families and communities left behind. What are the differences between high- and low-incarceration communities? In Colorado, there is limited research on the relationship between local rates of imprisonment and community measures of health, income, access to services, and education. However, we know that nationally, researchers have connected high local incarceration rates with a host of compounding factors for the community. For example, in an analysis by the Prison Policy Initiative in 2015 of where incarcerated people in Maryland are from, we found that Baltimore communities with high rates of incarceration were more likely to have high unemployment rates, long average commute times, low household income, a high percentage of residents with less than a high school diploma or GED, decreased life expectancy, high rates of vacant or abandoned properties, and higher rates of children with elevated blood-lead levels, compared to neighborhoods less impacted by incarceration. Such results are strictly correlational, suggesting that communities that are heavily affected by incarceration are simultaneously facing a host of other challenges and systemic disadvantages that combine to make almost every aspect of life difficult. These geographic disparities are not an accident, but are the result of long-standing and race and class biased policies and decisions about where to invest resources by both the private and public sectors. Across the country, research reveals the numerous correlations between imprisonment and other consequences of underinvestment in community wellbeing. These various correlative findings are once again in line with previous research on health disparities across communities, which have been linked to neighborhood factors such as income inequality, exposure to violence, and environmental hazards that disproportionately affect communities of color. Public health experts consider community-level factors such as these — including incarceration — “social determinants of health.” To counteract these problems, they suggest taking a broad approach, addressing the “upstream” economic and social disparities through policy reforms, as well as by increasing access to services and supports, such as improving access to clinical health care. Research has revealed such correlations in communities around the country: · Life expectancy: A 2021 analysis of New York State census tracts found that tracts with the highest incarceration rates had an average life expectancy more than two years shorter than tracts with the lowest incarceration rates, even when controlling for other population differences. And a 2019 analysis of counties across the country revealed that higher levels of incarceration are associated with both higher morbidity (poor or fair health) and mortality (shortened life expectancy). · Community health: A nationwide study, published in 2019, found that rates of incarceration were associated with a more than 50% increase in drug-related deaths from county to county. And, a 2018 study found that Black people living in Atlanta neighborhoods with high incarceration rates are more likely to have poor cardiometabolic health profiles.
An analysis of North Carolina data from 1995 to 2002 revealed that counties with increased incarceration rates had higher rates of both teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). A 2015 study of Atlanta also found that census tracts with higher rates of incarceration had higher rates of newly diagnosed STIs. · Mental health: A 2015 study found that people living in Detroit neighborhoods with high prison admission rates were more likely to be screened as having a current or lifetime major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. · Exposure to environmental dangers: A 2021 study found that people who grew up in U.S. census tracts with higher levels of traffic-related air pollution and housing-derived lead risk were more likely to be incarcerated as adults, even when controlling for other factors.
In New York City, neighborhood incarceration rate is associated with asthma prevalence among adults. Similarly, our 2020 analysis of New York City neighborhoods found higher rates of asthma among children in communities with high incarceration rates. · Education: In our 2020 analysis of incarcerated New Yorkers’ neighborhoods of origin, we found a strong correlation between neighborhood imprisonment rates and standardized test scores. And a 2017 report on incarceration in Worcester, Massachusetts, found that schools in the city’s high-incarceration neighborhoods tended to be lower-performing. What’s more, students in those neighborhoods faced more disciplinary infractions. · Community Resources and Engagement: A 2018 study found that, throughout the country, people who are formerly incarcerated (as well as people who have been arrested or convicted of a crime) are more likely than their non-justice-involved counterparts to live in a census tract with low access to healthy food retailers. And the 2017 report on Worcester, Mass., revealed that high-incarceration neighborhoods had lower voter turnout in municipal elections. We already have this wealth of data showing that incarceration rates correlate with a variety of barriers and negative outcomes. The data in this report build upon this work by helping identify which specific neighborhoods throughout Colorado are systematically disadvantaged and left behind. Colorado residents can use the data in this report to examine granular local-level and state-wide correlations and choose to allocate needed resources to places hardest hit by incarceration. Implications & uses of these data The 11 data tables provided here have great potential for community advocacy and future research. First and most obviously, these data can be used to determine the best locations for community-based programs that help prevent involvement with the criminal legal system, such as offices of neighborhood safety and mental health response teams that work independently from police departments. The data can also help guide reentry services (which are typically provided by nonprofit community organizations) to areas of Colorado that need them most. But even beyond the obvious need for reentry services and other programs to prevent criminal legal system involvement, our findings also point to geographic areas that deserve greater investment in programs and services that directly and indirectly prevent criminal legal involvement or mitigate the harm of incarceration. After all, decades of research show that imprisonment leads to cascading collateral consequences, both for individuals and their loved ones. When large numbers of people are taken out of a community, their absences are felt in countless ways. They leave behind loved ones, including children, who experience trauma, emotional distress, and financial strain. Simultaneously, the large numbers of people returning to these communities (since the vast majority of incarcerated people do return home) face a host of reentry challenges and collateral consequences of incarceration, including difficulty finding employment and a lack of housing. People impacted by the criminal legal system tend to have extremely diminished wealth accumulation. And those returning from prison and jail may carry back to their communities PTSD and other mental health issues from the trauma they’ve experienced and witnessed behind bars. Lastly, investing in core community resources to mitigate structural issues like poverty, such as housing and healthcare, will reduce vulnerabilities for criminal legal system contact. And since we know place of origin correlates with so many other metrics of wellbeing, we can and should target these communities for support and resources beyond what we typically think of as interventions to prevent criminal legal system contact. In communities where the state or city has heavily invested in policing and incarceration (i.e. the high-incarceration neighborhoods we find in our analysis), our findings suggest that those resources would be better put toward reducing poverty and improving local health, education, and employment opportunities. Instead of spending on policing, communities should instead implement targeted investments that reduce incarceration and poverty, while improving local health, education, and employment opportunities. For example, we know that large numbers of children in high incarceration areas may be growing up with the trauma and lost resources that come along with having an incarcerated parent, and that these children are also more likely to experience incarceration. The information in this report can help with planning and targeting supports, resources, and programming designed to not only respond to the harms caused by incarceration, but disrupt the cycle of familial incarceration. We invite community organizers, service providers, policymakers, and researchers to use the data tables made available in this report to make further connections between mass incarceration and various outcomes, to better understand the impact of incarceration on their communities. *** For more information, including 11 detailed data tables, footnotes, additional visualizations, our methodology and more, see the full version of this report on our website. This is part of a series of reports examining the geography of mass incarceration. |
