Idaho eyeing private prison
The correctional facility in Burlington, closed since 2016, could be reopened and house 1,200 inmates.
The Idaho prison system may send more than 1,000 inmates to live in a shuttered private prison on Colorado’s Eastern Plains, revitalizing an industry that many of the state’s leaders are trying to end.
The Kit Carson Correctional Facility in Burlington closed in 2016 but its owner, private prison giant CoreCivic, is negotiating a deal with the Idaho Department of Corrections that could reopen the facility. It would not host any Colorado inmates if an agreement is reached.
The Idaho Department of Corrections could finalize a contract in the next two weeks, and inmates could start to move to Colorado as early as May, Idaho Department of Corrections spokes
man Jeff Ray said in an email. The department is hoping to move up to 1,200 medium- and close-custody inmates to Kit Carson, he said. Close-custody inmates typically have a history of escaping, “serious institutional disciplinary history” or have displayed dangerous behavior during their incarceration, according to Idaho’s definitions.
Other states would also be allowed to contract with CoreCivic for any beds that remain open at the 1,488bed facility, Ray said. Idaho also expects to have a monitor in the prison at least once a month to make sure the company is meeting its contractual obligations and that the facility is safe, he said.
But Idaho will need approval from Dean Williams, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, before it can send inmates to the CoreCivic facility. Colorado law mandates that other states need approval from the executive director before they can place people in private prisons, but that the director’s approval should not be
“unreasonably withheld.”
“Neither CoreCivic nor the state of Idaho have made such a request to the department,” department spokeswoman Annie Skinner said in an email. “If a request is received, the Department of Corrections will extensively vet and review the request before any decision is made.”
CoreCivic representatives declined to answer questions from The Denver Post, including whether the facility would need any renovations before it could be reopened.
“Out of respect for the integrity of the procurement process and for competitive reasons, we do not elaborate on any proposals that may have been submitted in response to active procurements,” spokeswoman Amanda Gilchrist wrote in an email.
The Idaho Department of Corrections has struggled in recent years to manage a crowded prison system, according to The Idaho Press, which first reported inmates’ potential move to Colorado. CoreCivic was the only company that responded to the state’s request to negotiate for more space, the newspaper reported.
The negotiations in Idaho come as some Colorado lawmakers, including the governor, work to end the private prison industry in Colorado. The state’s other major private prison company, GEO Group, announced Jan. 7 that it would close its Colorado Springs prison in the next two months after Gov. Jared Polis identified the facility for closure in his budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year.
Two lawmakers, Rep. Leslie Herod and Sen. Julie Gonzales, introduced a bill earlier this month that would allow the reopening of a closed state prison to replace private prison beds and would require the Colorado Department of Corrections to study how it could end the use of private corrections companies by 2025.
The reopening would be a economic boon for Burlington and its 3,100 residents, said Rol Hudler, the town’s director of economic development. Hudler said he learned of the Idaho negotiations on Tuesday.
“It’s fantastic,” Hudler said. “It’s going to be huge for us. It’s going to be a lot of jobs.”
The closure of the prison in 2016 brought a loss of 142 jobs and hundreds of thousands of dollars in property tax. In its final year, only about 400 inmates lived in the facility’s 1,400 beds. In 2012, the legislature paid CoreCivic $9 million to keep the Burlington prison open as it became less profitable for the company to maintain operations.
Before its closure, Idaho temporarily housed more than 200 inmates at the Burlington prison.
One of the reasons the CoreCivic deal was attractive to Idaho prison administrators was Colorado’s law that all correctional facilities in the state be inspected and certified by the state.
The Colorado Department of Corrections did not respond to a question asking what oversight, if any, it would have over the prison should Idaho contract with CoreCivic.