Senators push to reopen state prison in final week of the session, bucking correctional reform ...

Senators push to reopen state prison in final week of the session, bucking correctional reform efforts in the House

A last-ditch effort to open a controversial high-security prison cleared its first hurdle Wednesday with bipartisan support.

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 5-2 to approve spending about $11.3 million to open up Colorado State Penitentiary II, now called the Centennial South Correctional Facility, a Cañon City prison that was built in 2010 to hold inmates in solitary confinement but was later mothballed in 2012. The money would pay mostly for building an outdoor recreational facility so that it could legally house general-population inmates. Each following year, additional operating costs are estimated to be about $18.8 million, according to the bill’s fiscal note.

The proposed spending comes as the state’s prison population is expected to rise above 20,000 inmates as soon as next year, according to state economists, in part due to a “rapidly rising felony caseload.”

“I would characterize it as giving us a lot more flexibility and reducing the rush of overcrowding,” Sen. Kent Lambert, a Republican from Colorado Springs who is the only sponsor on the bill, told The Colorado Independent.

Read more: http://www.coloradoindependent.com/170036/reopen-centennial-south-prison