The Denver Gazette’s Marissa Ventrelli reports on a Democratic effort to “fix” Colorado’s prison population management plan after the system apparently failed to do what it was supposed to do when it kicked in last August. The plan was created to prevent overcrowding in state prisons, but eight months later the prisons are still tight on space, county jails are still getting squeezed, and lawmakers are now back at the Capitol trying to patch the patch.
The article centers on Senate Bill 036, backed by Sens. Mike Weissman and Julie Gonzales, which would raise the vacancy-rate trigger from 3% to 4%, require more Department of Corrections reporting, and push additional steps if the prison system does not get above a 5% vacancy rate within 120 days. Ventrelli also notes the bill cleared the House Judiciary Committee on a narrow vote, with Republicans opposed and even one Democrat joining them.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Colorado built a prison population plan in 2018 to stop overcrowding. Last August, the threshold got hit, the plan was activated, and the result so far looks a lot like a government treadmill. Plenty of motion, not much progress.
- The Democratic “fix” is to raise the trigger from 3% to 4% and demand more reports from the Department of Corrections. Because when a policy faceplants, the first instinct in Denver is always another memo and a fresh spreadsheet.
- The bill would also require monthly updates and estimates for how many inmates would need to be moved or released to get vacancy rates above 5%. Translation: they want the math on how to create more space without saying the quiet part too loudly.
- If the vacancy rate still does not improve, the DOC would have to send the governor and parole board a list of parole-eligible inmates and recommend transfers to community corrections or other release options, including commutation. So yes, the “management plan” starts sounding a whole lot like “find more ways to move people out.”
- Even the article includes the obvious point from the Colorado District Attorneys Council: the state has closed seven prisons in the last decade. Amazing stuff. Shut down capacity, act surprised when capacity gets tight, then call it reform with a straight face.
My Bottom Line
This is what happens when ideology runs the room and basic arithmetic gets kicked into the hallway. Colorado Democrats spent years treating prisons like an embarrassment to be downsized, not a public safety necessity to be managed. Then the beds filled up, the county jails got jammed, and suddenly the same crowd that helped create the problem wants applause for “addressing” it.
And look at the pattern. They close facilities. They squeeze the system. They act shocked when overcrowding shows up right on schedule. Then they start talking about parole bottlenecks, transition beds, supervision programs, and all the other nice-sounding phrases that usually mean one thing in plain English: moving offenders out of state custody faster and pushing more burden onto local communities.
The most revealing part is that even the original early-release provision was apparently too much and got amended out after objections. That tells you everything. The instinct was there. The direction of travel was there. The operating assumption was there. When Democrats run out of prison space, their first answer is too often some version of “let’s get more people out,” not “maybe we should stop dismantling the system that keeps violent criminals off the street.”
Colorado used to understand that public safety is not a theory seminar. It is a basic duty. You do not protect the public by pretending capacity does not matter. You do not solve overcrowding by closing prisons and then writing yourself a new permission slip to parole more inmates. That is not criminal justice reform. That is statehouse malpractice dressed up in policy language.
Source: The Denver Gazette
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