Colorado Prisons and the Budget Crisis
The main idea of the article I selected discusses the problems with the increase of people entering the Colorado prison system and the repercussions on the state budget. I chose this article because it was not excessive in length and it stated its position clearly, and was direct to the point of the issue.
The author Stephen Raher, the Co-Director for Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition (CCJRC) discusses the impact of how Colorado’s ever growing prison population is jeopardizing the future of other programs. Programs such as higher education and human services are at risk because of the rising costs. With these enormous financial increases in people being incarcerated the money must be taken from other programs. It can be safely assumed to say that people do not want to pay more taxes to build more prisons.
The author discusses that bureau of Justice Statistics revealed publicly that “Colorado has the fourth fastest growing population in the nation”. This is definitely not something that people in Colorado should be proud of. Stephen Raher has been quoted as saying “Colorado’s love affair with prisons is causing our criminal justice system to collapse under its own weight, and it’s dragging the rest of the state with it.” (CCJRC)
There is no secret about the statistics, as they are public knowledge. However, how many people from the public sector realize the truth about who is really incarcerated? Half of all males incarcerated in Colorado are being held on non violent charges. It also showed that nearly three quarters of female prisoners are also being held for non violent offenses. Even more shocking is the fact that over half of Colorado’s inmates are past their eligibility date for parole. Why are these people being kept beyond their date of release? It seems like an exploitative measure to milk the tax payers for yet more money!
The author recommends that we need to look at why these inmates are being sent to prison and start making changes. Most inmates are incarcerated for non-violent drug charges and they are not receiving help of any kind to rehabilitate. The author recommends that a re-evaluation of priorities is in order. We need to support the use of drug treatment and mental health services. The author mentions the tremendous amount of money that would be saved in the long run, as well as the help that will be given to those in dire need.
The author concludes that Colorado legislators are definitely going in the wrong direction with their budgeting. The author mentions that members of the Colorado House Judiciary committee have repeatedly reinforced to the public that we need more prisons to fight crime, when in fact the crime is not the real issue. The issue at stake is providing rehabilitative drug treatment to people so that they can stay out of prisons and reduce the states expenses. The author also provided a table which gave a breakdown of the 2003/2004 budget for Colorado. This was very easy to understand and read.
I believe that the author is correct in stating our prison system is threatening to wreak “havoc” on the state budget. It is very apparent that there is a serious drug problem in the state of Colorado, yet the solution time and time again seems to be incarceration. The cost of treatment is far less than incarceration. However with the increase of prisons it gives the politician power to hold over the people. With the public being brainwashed into believing that we need more prisons to stop crime they hold the power over the people.
The problem with the information about this fiasco is that most people don’t care, or for that matter don’t know that the information is even available. I believe that the author made some very valid points and offers credible information and statistics. The information was easy to read and available for free on the CCJRC website.
Overall, I believe that the author stated imperative conclusions about the state of the Colorado budget crisis. The problem is that not enough people know this is a problem within the state. I had no idea about the budget crisis until doing the research. Most people are not interested in the bigger picture until the trickle down effect begins to directly impact them, such as taxes. Over a period of time this will only get worse and people may then begin to take notice when the cost of goods and their taxes continue to grow in retaliation for the problem which has been ignored for so long.
My personal recommendations would be very similar to those suggested by the author. There is an infinite need to repair the Colorado budget. The use of incarceration for non violent drug offenses is not working. It honestly doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out. The state needs to look into alternative methods which will not move the problem from one area of the administration to another part.
An example of this would be removing the inmates incarcerated for non violent drug charges and placing them on parole or probation. This will create an overwhelming influx of people in which the demand will not be able to be met with services. It needs to be dealt with carefully as to not flood one area of the administration. Preparations should be made in advance. This could be the creation of rehabilitative treatment centers for in patient and out patient services. The costs would be high in the millions of dollars, but compared to the costs of incarcerating inmates. In conclusion there are far too many options available to keep incarcerating people who are in need of drug rehabilitation not a costly stay within the prison system.
Reference
Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, Colorado Prisons Threaten to Wreak
Havoc on State budget State is National Leader in Prison Population Growth (2003)
Retrieved on September 18, 2005 from:
http://www.ccjrc.org/pdf/BJSReportJul25.pdf
