Despite an audit that found numerous flaws at privately run prisons in Colorado, the number of inmates held in them will likely more than double in the next four years, officials said.
And unless Colorado is prepared to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for new prisons, set thousands of inmates free or ship them to other states, it must increasingly rely on private prisons.
“We have no new prisons coming on line,” said Alison Morgan, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.
In four years, the department projects it will have an additional 4,000 inmates to house. Private-prison corporations are eager to pick up that slack, with two new private prisons under construction or in the design phase.
The cost of building state pri sons to house the 3,000 inmates already in the five privately run prisons would run $225 million, Morgan said.
According to a state audit released Monday, private prisons skimp on food, medical care and staffing ratios. Two inmates died after doctors changed their medications without seeing them. Food complaints helped provoke a riot at the Crowley Correctional Facility last summer.
Morgan said the audit pointed out problems that need fixing, but it didn’t suggest the private prison system is not working.
The state has already addressed some of the major concerns of the audit.
The department has revamped its prison monitoring staff and created new penalties for substandard supervision, Morgan said.
When corporations such as Corrections Corporation of America, which owns Crowley and most private prisons in Colorado, fail to meet supervision and food-quality standards, they will receive financial penalties for the first time, Morgan said.
She said that when new rates go into effect this summer, private prisons will receive just over $50 a day per prisoner. By comparison, it costs the state $77 per day per inmate. Morgan said the state takes prisoners who are more violent, have severe psychological needs or are disciplinary problems.
CCA saves on food costs, pays lower wages to correctional officers and hires fewer employees than the Department of Corrections, Morgan said.
CCA spokesman Steve Owen said the company can get better rates than the state for supplies because it is a large national company.
Without bureaucratic constraints that can add years to a construction project, the private business can also save tens of millions of dollars in prison construction costs, he said. The Tennessee-based company would be willing to consider building new prisons to meet Colorado’s future growth needs.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
