Colorado prisons get funding for more beds even though they’re required to reduce their population
Spike CO
Colorado prisons get funding for more beds even though they’re required to reduce their population
Prison reform advocates urged state lawmakers not to approve supplemental budget request
By: Lindsey Toomer - September 26, 2025 4:00 am
The Colorado Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee this week approved on a 4-2 vote a $2.8 million supplemental budget request from the Colorado Department of Corrections to add 153 more private prison beds.
The additional funding will go to the department even though it is also required to make an extra effort to reduce its inmate population. The provisions of a 2018 law in August were triggered for the first time after the state prisons’ vacancy rate had been below 3% for more than 30 consecutive days. Those conditions under the law require the department to take steps to reduce the incarcerated population.
Criminal justice reform advocates as well as Democratic leaders of both the state House and Senate judiciary committees wrote to the Joint Budget Committee earlier this month urging members to vote against the DOC’s budget request, citing the department’s limited efforts to efficiently reduce the prison population as the 2018 law requires.