Colorado Springs – Taking a cue from Maricopa County, Ariz., El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa plans to house inmates in a 12,000-square-foot tent set up in a parking lot.
Maketa said a heated tent is the cheapest option to house up to 180 inmates during the eight or nine months while the downtown jail is being renovated.
“I think it’s safe to say the big top is coming,” Maketa said this week, adding that the tent could be up in the jail’s north parking lot by next month.
“The demand is exceeding our capacity,” Maketa said. “I don’t want to get put into a situation where we can’t accept offenders because we’re full.”
In January, Maketa’s office said the jail reached a new record capacity and was nearly full. County officials are drawing up plans for a $25 million to $40 million expansion.
Other communities that have housed inmates in tents include Denver in 2005, Boulder in 1998, and Maricopa County, which now houses about 3,000 inmates 13 years after Sheriff Joe Arpaio began his tent jail.
A massive heating unit is expected to keep the El Paso County tent at least 65 degrees, as required by state law.
“If it gets a little chilly on occasion, I think a little chill does the soul a little good,” Maketa said.
Maketa said there would be a fence, possibly with razor wire, and guard dogs. The project would cost an estimated $200,000 a year, not including the 12 to 13 extra deputies to staff it. There would be portable toilets for inmates and no showers. Food would be prepared in the jail’s kitchen.
Inmates on work release – a program that will be reactivated if the tent goes up – and those serving short sentences would be housed there.
Elena Bost, with the inmate-rights group CURE of Southern Colorado, called the plan dehumanizing.
“If we have this many people going into our jail, we need to rethink our policies,” she said.
