The Colorado legislature’s budget panel changed course on Wednesday, reversing its previous decision to deny the Department of Corrections $2.4 million request to pay for additional prison beds.

Last week, JBC members voted, 4-2, to deny the department’s request, with Democrats arguing that they have yet to see the department make any substantial effort to reduce the state’s prison population amid recent overcrowding.

The department had requested a $2.8 million supplemental for additional beds in September, following the governor’s implementation of the Prison Population Management Measures. Established by a 2018 law, the management measures require the parole board to compile a list of inmates with low-level offenses who are eligible for parole and can be released from DOC facilities to bring population numbers back to more manageable levels if vacancy rates are at or below 3% for 30 consecutive days.

However, according to JBC staffer Justin Brakke, the current inmate population is 660 above this year’s budget. The department requested ongoing funding for 788 beds for this fiscal year, primarily for facilities in Sterling, Delta and Buena Vista.

“Until I see a more comprehensive plan about how we manage our prison population, including what kinds of proactive steps through legislation or otherwise we should be taking, I don’t feel comfortable moving the caseload forward at this point,” Rep. Kyle Brown, D-Louisville, said during last week’s committee meeting.

The corrections agency returned on Wednesday with a comeback request, and three members — Brown, JBC Chair Emily Sirota, D-Denver, and Sen. Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village — switched their votes. Sen. Judy Amabile, D-Boulder, remained a no vote.

While Brown, Sirota, and Bridges ultimately reversed their decision, all three said they did so reluctantly.

“Year after year, we come back here with only requests for increases,” Sirota said. “More beds here, more beds there … and we are yet to have received an agreement about any sort of a comprehensive plan from the administration about how we can do anything beyond just shoveling more money into the Department of Corrections.” 

Amabile said she had been informed that there are currently about 500 empty beds in community corrections facilities statewide, with an additional 280 available spots at nonresidential facilities. In addition, she said 700 individuals have been “tabled” by the department, meaning they have been approved for parole but either have no place to go upon release, or have not undergone treatment required as a condition of their parole.

“We have 700 empty placements, and we have 700 people that have been approved for parole, so I’m gonna be a ‘no’ on more beds, but if anyone would propose it, I would be a hard ‘yes’ on doing some of the things that we could be doing right now to get some of these people out,” she said.

Republican Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, who is running for governor, argued that some of the issues her colleagues blame on the department are beyond the agency’s control.

“It’s kind of like we’re getting upset with one leg of this three-legged stool,” she said, adding that community corrections and the state’s parole board are also to blame.

“My suggestion is this: if we want to avoid this position again and we want to have a plan, I think there needs to be something where community corrections, parole, and corrections all get together and start telling us: What does it take to get those supposedly 700 individuals who have been approved for parole out on parole?” she said.