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A logo with the text "No More Prisons Colorado" in bold letters, featuring a stylized mountain, and a red and yellow sun.

Prison expansion in Colorado is not inevitable.

In a severe budget crisis, Colorado is cutting funding for schools, healthcare, and other essential services, while significantly increasing the Department of Corrections’ budget. In March of 2026, the Governor’s office asked the legislature for $200 million to purchase a closed private prison.

CCJRC launched the No More Prisons coalition in 2025 to stop prison expansion and advance solutions that safely reduce Colorado’s prison population.

CRIME IS DOWN. WHY IS COLORADO’S PRISON POPULATION GROWING?

Colorado’s prison growth is driven by policy choices, not crime.

Crime across the country and in Colorado is on the decline, and felony convictions in Colorado are declining. Yet the prison population continues to rise.

Two key factors are driving the increase:

  • Fewer eligible people are being released on parole.

  • People on parole are being sent back to prison for technical violations instead of being routed to community-based alternatives.

INVEST IN THE SAFETY OUR COMMUNITY DESERVES.

The unprecedented growth in prison spending is one reason Colorado ranks near the bottom nationally in public investment in education.

As prison costs continue to rise, they consume public dollars that could otherwise support schools, students, and the future of our communities.

The time to stop the resource drain of prison expansion is now.

Colorado spending per person per year

Bar chart comparing three paths to a million dollars through investing, with current values of $68,000, $11,852, and $8,700 respectively.

Incarceration Source K-12 Source Higher-Ed Source

READ OUR BRIEFING:
CORRECTIONS AT A CROSSROADS

Flyer by Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition advocating for criminal justice reform. It discusses prison population growth, reasons for the increase, and alternative strategies to prevent prison expansion. Includes a quote about reducing prison beds, outlines three legislative steps, and provides contact information for advocates.


We have options that would reduce prison population growth, ease pressure on staff, and promote public safety through successful reentry. Thousands of people are already past their parole eligibility date. Hundreds have been approved for release but for lack of housing. Continuing to add prison beds instead of fixing reentry bottlenecks is costly, unnecessary, and irresponsible.”

— Christie Donner Executive Director, CCJRC

A large pair of yellow quotation marks on a black background.
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A meeting or hearing in a formal conference room filled with people sitting in chairs, facing a central elevated area, with flags and a seal behind the speakers.

JOIN THE NO MORE PRISONS COALITION

CCJRC is joined by a broader coalition of community organizations statewide opposing prison expansion and calling for responsible population management and fiscal accountability/

Join the No More Prisons coalition as an individual or an organization!

Join the coalition!

PICTURED: Members of the No More Prisons coalition filled the chamber during the Joint Budget Committee hearing on the FY25–26 Department of Corrections budget request. For the first time in at least 27 years, the committee rejected DOC’s request for additional prison beds, pushing DOC to develop a real plan to manage the prison population.

ORGANIZATIONS IN THE NO MORE PRISONS COALITION

  • ACLU of Colorado

  • Advocates For Change

  • Alternatives to Violence Program Colorado

  • American Friends Service Committee Colorado

  • Appeal to Justice

  • Arapahoe County Green Party

  • Astor Investigations

  • Beautifully Unbroken

  • Centennial Mental Health Center

  • Center for Employment Opportunities

  • CHIC: Collaborative Healing Initiative within Communities

  • Cobalt Advocates

  • College Gateway Program

  • COLOR: Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights

  • Colorado Common Cause

  • Colorado Consumer Health Initiative

  • Colorado Crime Survivors Network, Inc.

  • Colorado Criminal Defense Bar

  • Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition

  • Colorado Foundation for Universal Healthcare

  • Colorado Freedom Fund

  • Colorado Legal Defense Group

  • Colorado Mountain News

  • Colorado Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel

  • Colorado Providers Association

  • Colorado Radio for Justice

  • CrossPurpose

  • Crowley Foundation Inc

  • CSU Fort Collins Young Democrats

  • Denver Justice Project

  • Destination Sober Living LLC

  • El Movimiento Sigue

  • El Paso County Green Party

  • End Slavery Colorado

  • Expunge Colorado

  • First Congregational United Church of Christ

  • First Universalist Church of Denver

  • Harm Reduction Action Center

  • Haugen Law & Advocacy

  • Hazelbrook

  • Hazelbrook Community Center

  • Healthier Colorado

  • Humaniticares LLC

  • Interfaith Alliance of Colorado

  • Korey Wise Innocence Project

  • Krizman Law

  • Legislation Inside

  • LifeTown Colorado

  • Lighthouse Consultants Colorado

  • Lucero Law LLC

  • Matson Sandler Law LLC

  • Meza & Associates

  • NAMI Colorado

  • NAS Recovery Solutions

  • National Action Network Colorado

  • National Center for Youth Law Colorado Youth Justice Team

  • National Lawyers Guild

  • New Era Colorado

  • Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel

  • Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains

  • Prison Fellowship

  • Progressive Democrats of America - Denver Chapter

  • Pueblo Indivisible

  • Purple Mountain Recovery Inc

  • Recover Simply

  • Redeemed Ones Jail Prison Ministry, Inc

  • Remerg

  • Restorative Justice Practice

  • Restoring Connections

  • Servicios De la Raza

  • Small Town Project

  • Soul2Soul Sisters

  • Spero Justice Center

  • Stand for Children

  • Straight Ahead Colorado

  • Texas Prisons Community Advocates

  • The Absolute Word Prison Ministry

  • The Arc of Larimer County

  • The Empowerment Program

  • The Hall Law Office

  • The Mountain West Co.

  • The Reentry Initiative

  • The Sentencing Project

  • The Storytellers Project

  • Third Street Counseling LLC

  • Together Colorado Transforming Justice Team

  • Transformative Justice Project of Colorado

  • Vanguard Justice LLC

  • Women's Lobby of Colorado

  • Young and Aspiring Americans for Social and Political Activism