CCJRC and COWINS Oppose DOC’s Request for 941 Additional Prison Beds

As Colorado faces a state budget crisis, advocates and state workers warn prison expansion would worsen dangerous staffing shortages while draining education and healthcare funding, locking the state into a costly new prison instead of smarter solutions.

DENVER, CO — The Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition (CCJRC) and Colorado WINS, the union representing Colorado state workers including more than 5,000 in Colorado’s Department of Corrections (DOC), are urging lawmakers to reject DOC’s FY25-26 Supplemental Budget Request to expand state and private prison capacity. The Joint Budget Committee (JBC) will hold a hearing and vote on the first portion of DOC’s budget request on Wednesday, January 21.

DOC is asking the JBC to fund 788 additional state prison beds and 153 additional private prison beds, even as the department grapples with chronic under-staffing and Colorado faces a worsening budget crisis and deep cuts to education, healthcare, behavioral health services, and other essential public investments.

Colorado WINS says it cannot support prison expansion because DOC does not have enough staff to safely operate its existing facilities, and the department is not requesting sufficient additional staff to responsibly support expanded bed capacity.

“This is not a position we take lightly,” said Hilary Glasgow, Executive Director of Colorado WINS. “Colorado WINS has never opposed a DOC request for additional prison beds. Limited prison capacity is of course a challenge for staff, but we are in the midst of a staffing crisis that’s compromising safety for our members, the incarcerated population, and the public, and adding more beds is only going to make things much worse.”

DOC’s proposal includes adding 300 beds at Sterling Correctional Facility and 288 beds at Delta Correctional Center — facilities that face the chronic staff shortages. Neither CCJRC nor Colorado WINS has confidence that DOC will be able to staff the expanded capacity at these locations appropriately, increasing burnout, turnover, and safety risks.

At the same time, CCJRC emphasizes that prison growth is not being driven by increased crime. New felony convictions and commitments to prison are down, yet the prison population continues to rise largely because fewer people are being released on parole. Nearly 5,000 people in DOC custody are past their parole eligibility date, but releases have declined due to internal bottlenecks, insufficient caseworkers and program staff, and a lack of viable reentry options.

Many people remain incarcerated not because they pose a public safety risk, but because DOC lacks the staffing to complete parole plans and the state lacks housing and reentry options in the community — particularly for older adults, people with serious medical needs, and those who would otherwise be released into homelessness. As a result, parole candidates come before the board without adequate plans, and releases are denied.

As DOC adds more beds without fixing these problems, it keeps ratcheting up the prison population. We are expanding incarceration capacity while failing to expand reentry capacity — especially for elders and medically fragile people who should not be stuck in prison.

Colorado’s prison population is aging rapidly, driving up medical costs. People over age 50 now make up a growing share of those incarcerated, and medical needs increase sharply with age. More than 60% of people aged 50–64, and nearly 70% of those over age 64, have chronic medical conditions, with medical costs per person roughly double those of younger incarcerated people. More than $25 million of DOC’s current supplemental request is tied to rising medical costs, a trend that prison expansion will only accelerate.

Rather than continuing to expand incarceration, CCJRC and Colorado WINS are calling for a different approach: better use of community corrections, investments in program staffing and internal efficiencies, expanded housing and care options on the reentry side, and stronger use of tools already on the books.

“Colorado has better options than prison expansion,” said Christie Donner, Executive Director of CCJRC. “Lawmakers should be asking DOC to manage its population — by strengthening parole processes, expanding reentry capacity for elders and people with serious medical needs, and fully using community based placements — not defaulting to more beds.”

Donner noted that legislation will soon be introduced to strengthen Colorado’s Prison Population Management Measures, a law passed unanimously in 2018 to prevent overcrowding and force smarter use of existing resources. Tools like Special Needs Parole already exist but are underutilized, in part because the state has failed to invest in appropriate reentry options such as contracted –nursing or medical care facilities.

“The Joint Budget Committee has repeatedly said this year’s budget requires difficult tradeoffs,” said Kyle Giddings, CCJRC’s Deputy Director. “The Department of Corrections is not underfunded; it is underperforming. At a time when the state is about to make deep cuts to higher education, healthcare, and many other programs Coloradans depend on, a moral budget would invest in people and communities—not in broken bureaucracies.”