Newsletter | June 2026

Rumors are swirling around the deaths of two Bent Correctional Facility inmates and serious injuries that sent another to hospital earlier this month, alleging everything from satanic ritualism, to dismemberment, to cannibalism.

We don’t know yet what actually happened. What we do know is that this was a serious enough crisis to prompt a 36-hour lockdown at Bent and lockdowns and visitation suspensions across state prisons. It was also serious enough that dozens of our members–both SORT tactical team members and Correctional Officers–were called in to search the private facility.

DOC says it’s waiting on autopsy findings and an OIG investigation to confirm what actually happened. But we – and all Coloradans – don’t just need to know what happened, but why it happened and why we continue to allow such a disreputable corporation – or any private entity – to run any of our state prisons.

Bent is one of two for-profit state prisons in Colorado run by CoreCivic, the target of multiple lawsuits across the country alleging wrongful deaths, abuse, inhumane living and working conditions, denial of life-saving medical treatment, forced labor, wage theft, and other workers’ rights violations.

We know that private prisons don’t take the most complex, labor-intensive, and dangerous cases – those are left to our members to handle in publicly run facilities. So what could have led to this crisis? Was policy being followed? Were wellness checks and headcounts missed? Was this violence sparked by poor conditions in the facility? And why are our members being called in to clean up the crises in for-profit prisons?

In an attempt to help mitigate overcrowding across state facilities, Colorado just awarded the multi-million dollar company increases to the daily per diem it receives per prisoner – totalling $11.5 million in 2026/2027, and another $14.5 million for 2027/2028. The state also voted to fund a new private prison, one that most certainly will end up run by CoreCivic.

We are all anxious to learn more about what happened, and more importantly why. But no matter what the findings, we must stop private prisons and find better ways to fix overcrowding. Rehabilitation can’t be about profit, and public money should be spent in public prisons, where our members are better trained, follow policy, and, most importantly, where everyone is held more accountable.