Centennial – The Arapahoe County Jail and adjacent courthouse are so crowded that officials are considering spending nearly $290 million to build new facilities.
A recent study found that the county will need to build a new jail and courthouse – at a cost of more than $288 million – to meet long-term demands.
The current jail contains 1,100 beds but about 1,300 inmates are housed there now, crowded into cells and sleeping on foam pads on the floor and bunk beds.
The problem will only worsen, the study found. In five years, the inmate population at the jail is estimated to rise to 1,750, and by 2016, it is estimated to be at more than 1,900.
“We are working real hard on a variety of issues that go beyond building new jails, such as sentence reform and mental-health issues,” Sheriff Grayson Robinson said. “But a new jail is something we are going to have to build.”
Compounding the problem is a backlog of cases and an insufficient number of judges to hear the cases at the courthouse, the study found. The number of cases filed in district court went from 13,089 in 1999 to 20,654 in 2006, and the number in county court went from 45,442 to 75,298 during that same period.
Also, inmates are jailed longer at the county lockup before they can be tried.
At the courthouse, called the Arapahoe County Justice Center, there isn’t room for the four new judges set to work there in the next two years.
Jail crowding is not just a problem in Arapahoe County. Cities throughout the state and country also are struggling with the issue. Inmates are doubling up in cells, while others are sent to smaller jails in other cities or states where space is available. In-home monitoring is being used as a way to free space.
The Arapahoe County study, done by the DLR Group, recommended building a new jail, either in a five-story tower or a pod structure, on the property or adjacent land. A parking structure also would have to be built.
County officials would have to identify how to pay for those improvements, and a tax increase could be likely.
In the short term, there are plans to relocate the district attorney’s office and probation department to leased space elsewhere. That would free space to add more courtrooms, said Shannon Carter, special assistant to the county commissioners.
Other proposals to increase space include adding modular buildings at the site and remodeling the first floor of the courthouse.
The short-term fixes would cost about $15 million, Carter said. Some of that money could come from the operating budget, he said.
The commission will decide on those possible fixes within the next few weeks while it studies plans for the future.
“What we are trying to do is get as efficient as we can with the systems we have, both for the jail and the courts,” Carter said. “Whatever we do from the short-term standpoint, we’ll try to make it as long as possible.”
Staff writer Carlos Illescas can be reached at 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com.
CONSTRUCTION INEVITABLE
“We are working real hard on a variety of issues that go beyond building new jails, such as sentence reform and mental-health issues. But a new jail is something we are going to have to build.”
Sheriff Grayson Robinson
