State Panel Rejects Latest Attempt To Open Shuttered Prison
DENVER (AP) — Colorado's shuttered solitary confinement prison will remain closed for the foreseeable future.
The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday rejected a measure to renovate Centennial Correctional Facility-South so it can house the general prison population.
The Department of Corrections for years has sought funding from the legislature to do so. Officials say they're running out of prison space.
The $208 million prison opened in 2010 and closed two years later, because the state phased out solitary confinement.
The general population renovations are projected to cost $11 million. The department proposes adding a recreational yard and making other changes needed to house inmates and administer a re-entry program.
Opponents want the state to jail fewer people. They worry that if the facility is renovated, the state will fill it with inmates.
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