For the second time in less than four years, Denver voters are being asked to approve a new jail and criminal justice center.
The old jail’s many problems haven’t evaporated since voters in November 2001 rejected a plan for a $325 million justice center near Interstate 25 and West Sixth Avenue.
Now, Referendum 1A proposes to cure those problems with a $378 million jail and justice center downtown. The election is May 3; early voting has started and runs through Friday.
In 2002, the city bought the Rocky Mountain News building on the 400 block of West Colfax Avenue as a site for a new jail and justice center. In 2003, consultants recommended buying the adjacent block to the west. Plans now call for a 1,500-bed jail on the 400 block and 35 courtrooms in a building on the block to the west.
Inmates housed downtown will be taken between the buildings through tunnels. Also, old cellblocks at Smith Road will be demolished and more modern units built to house inmates who have been tried and are serving sentences. The whole project would be finished by 2012.
There’s no question the aging county jail on Smith Road is overcrowded, imperiling inmates and staff alike. Antiquated tier-style cellblocks make the parts of the jail built in 1954 more difficult to staff than newer pod cells added in the 1990s. The jail often holds more than 2,000 inmates though it has a design capacity of 1,500. Much of the jail is simply worn out.
Courtroom space and security are also a concern. Inmates are bused from Smith Road to the courts downtown and led in shackles through the hallways of the City and County Building, where they may encounter victims, witnesses and jurors.
Former Mayor Wellington Webb’s administration, which won voter approval for several highly visible bricks-and-mortar projects, was unable to get voters to OK a new jail.
Jails are not as easy to sell to voters as new libraries or rec centers. Still, political consultants point out that the 2001 ballot measure lost only narrowly, and mainly because of resident opposition in West Denver.
“Four years ago, the economy was completely in the tank,’ said political consultant Eric Sondermann. “Four years ago, the mayor was somewhat of a lame duck and had lost his punch. He’d gone to the voters various times with funding measures, but he didn’t have much magic left. But this mayor [John Hickenlooper] apparently has plenty of magic left.’
Hickenlooper, elected in June 2003, continues to ride a wave of political popularity and is actively campaigning for the new jail. He’s already persuaded voters to approve charter changes to create a police oversight board and a police monitor. He rallied support in the metro area to help get RTD’s $4.7 billion FasTracks transit expansion passed. And he’s dealt successfully with a $70 million budget deficit.
Also, this time around, neighborhood opposition hasn’t been a factor. “It doesn’t feel like the issue is completely engaged,’ Sondermann said. “That works to the proponents’ advantage.’ Opposition, he said, “seems to be isolated on the far left.’ A neighborhood group in the Golden Triangle has endorsed the project, while an area business group opposes it.
Opponents of Referendum 1A agree the county jail needs fixing but say the city should focus on sentencing alternatives to reduce the need for jail space.
Other metro-area jurisdictions have done that to reduce jail-space needs. An example is Boulder County’s successful effort to help mentally ill repeat offenders break the cycle of criminal behavior.
The opponents of the jail – organized as Denver Voters for Responsible Spending – charge the city’s tools for analyzing the number and nature of the jail’s inmates are outdated, which makes it difficult to identify inmates who could be rehabilitated and thus reduce jail population.
Jefferson County gathers and analyzes extensive data about its jail inmates and has a long-standing committee of criminal justice experts to consult on ways to ease jail crowding.
“You don’t come to the voters with a $600 million proposal without first doing your homework,’ jail opponent Christie Donner recently told The Post.
The total cost of the project would be just under $600 million, once interest on bonds is paid. Hickenlooper says the city would still have plenty of other bonding capacity for other future projects.
Denver already spends about $14.6 million a year on diversionary and alternative-sentencing programs, and Hickenlooper says he plans to increase funding and to expand the city’s alternatives to incarceration.
