After Denver voters’ approval Tuesday of a $378 million justice center downtown, city officials plan to embark soon on the design and construction of the project.
In tandem with those plans, the city is assembling a commission tasked with advising Denver leaders on which programs to adopt for rehabilitating repeat offenders.
The city’s preliminary schedule for the rest of the year calls for selling bonds to finance the project, selecting a design for the complex through a competitive process, soliciting community input and preparing for construction of an adjacent parking garage.
If construction schedules hold, the city will open the complex’s parking garage in late 2006, open its jail and courts in 2009 and complete renovations at the Smith Road jail by 2011.
Meanwhile, a newly seated Crime Control and Prevention Commission will study diversionary programs and alternatives to incarceration, with the aim of recommending the best programs for Denver to use.
Mayor John Hickenlooper has pledged $1.2 million for such programs next year and up to $3.5 million a year by 2009.
“We’ve said all along that the more successful we are with alternatives to sentencing, the longer the bricks and mortar we build will last us,” mayoral spokeswoman Lindy Eichenbaum Lent said Tuesday. “This is a holistic approach to the justice system in the city.”
Even after conceding the election Tuesday night, members of the campaign that opposed the justice center said their work isn’t finished. Specifically, some say Denver needs to focus on its treatment programs for mentally ill and repeat offenders.
“We’ve said all along that (Referendum) 1A is not going to solve the deeper problems,” said Christie Donner, a leader of the opposition campaign. “So we have as much work to do tomorrow as we did today.”
Staff writer Kris Hudson can be reached at 303-820-1593 or khudson@denverpost.com.
