“Without tools like [Senate Bill 26-036], the default becomes expansion, and expansion is the most expensive option available to the state,” CCJRC’s Deputy Director Kyle Giddings said. “It locks us into long-term costs without addressing the underlying issues: how we manage the population we already have.”

Colorado’s House Democrats pressed budget writers Tuesday over a nearly $70 million increase for the Department of Corrections, questioning why the state plans to add 941 prison beds and explore new prison capacity at a time when crime rates are falling, and hundreds of inmates are already eligible for parole.

The news was met with shock from state lawmakers, who have been reeling in recent weeks as they cut Medicaid and other state services to address a $1.5 billion budget shortfall.

Without enough legislative votes to pass their agenda, conservative activists have turned to the ballot initiative process as the only way to pass a conservative policy agenda.

Local officials had claimed they were already giving detained people ballot access, but the first-in-the-nation mandate forced their hands and increased turnout across the state.