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Could Colorado end the use of private prisons by 2025? Lawmakers want to find out.

ELISE SCHMELZER and ALEX BURNESS | The Denver Post
Colorado could look to fully reopen the shuttered Centennial South prison, pictured here in 2012 right after it closed, as a way to reduce the number of private beds used in the short term. AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post

Colorado lawmakers for the first time are preparing to map out a possible divorce from the private prison industry, and a long-shuttered maximum-security prison could be part of the solution.

A committee tasked with managing the state’s prison population has been workshopping a proposal that calls upon the Colorado Department of Corrections “to study how to end the practice of using private prisons by 2025 in a responsible way.”

The proposed bill also calls for Colorado to begin housing inmates at the remodeled Centennial South as a way to reduce the number of private beds used. The Cañon City prison opened in 2010 to house prisoners in solitary confinement but closed two years later as the state phased out the practice.



The draft bill says that for every prisoner housed at Centennial South, another must be moved out of a private facility until Centennial South is full.

Read more via The Denver Post.


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