Democratic lawmakers seek fix to Colorado’s stalled prison population plan

Colorado’s prison population plan was designed to prevent overcrowding. Instead, eight months after it was triggered, the system remains strained and largely ineffective, prompting two Democratic lawmakers to push for changes through new legislation.

According to its sponsors, Senate Bill 036 lays out the proposed changes. Sen. Mike Weissman and Sen. Julie Gonzales say the bill would raise the vacancy‑rate threshold that triggers the plan from 3% to 4% and require the Department of Corrections to provide more detailed reports

The House Judiciary Committee narrowly passed the measure on a 4-3 vote with both Republican committee members and Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, voting against it.

Overcrowding in Colorado’s state prisons has been a mounting concern for months. County sheriffs first raised alarms in May about the shortage of available prison beds, which has pushed more people into already strained local jails.

The measures triggered under the population management plan have had little to no effect on the state’s overall prison population over the last year. Weissman, an Aurora Democrat, said that of the roughly 15,000 people in Colorado’s correctional facilities, just over 200 have appeared before the parole board, noting that only about 12% of them were granted parole.

The prison population management measures, according to Weissman, are about “looking really, really, really hard at the DOC population to see who maybe has shown some indicia of change and can go to the parole board, and are they going to decide that they can release people, or perhaps not.”

By introducing Senate Bill 036, Weissman and Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, say it will help increase the vacancy rate threshold from 3% to 4% and expand reporting requirements for the DOC.

Additionally, the bill requires the DOC to submit monthly population updates and to include estimates of the population reduction needed to increase the vacancy rate to 5% or higher.

If passed, sponsors say SB 036 would set new requirements for community corrections facilities, or halfway houses. These include reviewing the eligibility of certain inmates for intensive supervision programs and evaluating whether to expand the number of available transition beds.

If the prison vacancy rate doesn’t exceed 5% within 120 days of the plan’s activation, the bill requires the DOC to submit to the governor and parole board a list of inmates who are eligible for parole and recommend either transferring them to community corrections or another form of release, such as commutation of their sentence.

Tom Raynes of the Colorado District Attorneys Council argued that part of the reason the state is seeing such a high prison population is a lack of facilities — the state has closed seven prisons in the last decade, he said.

He objected to a provision of the bill that was ultimately amended out, but would have allowed certain inmates to be released up to 90 days before their parole eligibility date if the prison population management plan was in effect.

“It seems kind of like, if nothing else works, then let’s just take this category and get them out early,” Raynes said.

Supporters say it’s a step forward

Colorado is at a “turning point” with how it manages its prison system, said Kyle Giddings of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.

While the governor’s office and DOC are asking for funding for a new prison, the system currently in place “lacks clear planning and transparency around how those resources are used,” Giddings said. “This bill starts to address that gap.”

Because the original law establishing the prison population management plan didn’t include certain transparency requirements, it is not entirely clear why the plan hasn’t significantly reduced the state’s prison population, Giddings said.

Senate Bill 036 makes that 2018 law work as it was originally intended, he said.

“Without tools like this, the default becomes expansion, and expansion is the most expensive option available to the state,” he said. “It locks us into long-term costs without addressing the underlying issues: how we manage the population we already have.”