The Colorado Department of Corrections transferred 240 offenders to Sayre, Okla., with more expected to follow, prison officials said Thursday.
Colorado’s state prisons are filled to capacity.
The North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre is 500 miles from Colorado Springs, where the Department of Corrections is based, and is a private facility operated by Corrections Corporation of America, which also manages four private facilities in Colorado.
A recent audit showed that since the 1980s, Colorado’s inmate population has exceeded the capacity of state prisons. As a result, an increasing number of prison inmates have been housed in county jails, prisons operated by other states and private prisons.
The Department of Corrections is working on providing video visitation from one or more Colorado locations to Sayre, in western Oklahoma. Notifications will be sent as soon as the service is available.
To be considered for out-of-state placement, inmates had to be classified as medium custody or below, have at least two years until parole eligibility and not be in a sex-offender treatment program. Inmates also undergo psychological and medical screenings.
The duration of out-of-state placement is not known at this time.
