Just need to let you know that closing the Rifle Correctional Facility is really a bonehead move.

This facility has the lowest recidivism rate out of all the correctional facilities in Colorado. Lowering the recidivism rates is one of the primary goals of the Department of Corrections, and for them to close this facility with the best success in the state just does not make sense.

Yes, we are in hard times, but closing the best facility in the state is a move that doesn’t compute.

Somewhere around 50 percent of inmates cycle through the prisons two or three times. From the Rifle facility, the rate is around 26 percent — half what the other facilities have achieved. To close it means absorbing the added expense of more inmates cycling through more often.

Add to that the fact that Colorado needs more prison space, not less – it just doesn’t make sense. Closing the 200-bed facility may save some funding now but, to be sure, they will be asking to build more prisons soon, probably in the next few years.

In view of these facts, Gov. Bill Ritter needs to find other places to tighten the fiscal belts, because this one just doesn’t add up. Closing the facility that has done the best job in the state is punishing success.

JERRY NINE
Rifle

This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 10:51 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.