Joint Judiciary hears grim DOC budget and capacity picture as parole risk-assessment failures complicate relief

The Joint Judiciary Committee’s Smart Act briefing on March 1 turned into a sustained accounting of the state’s corrections crunch, with the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) and the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) warning of rising costs, limited bed capacity and a backlog of people waiting in county jails. The session also foregrounded a separate but related problem: flawed risk assessments used by the Division of Adult Parole, which committee members and DOC officials said has reduced discretionary releases and helped swell the prison population.

During opening remarks, the JBC told lawmakers the governor’s proposed budget includes substantial cuts elsewhere and that the corrections budget contains a mix of increases and large supplemental requests. JBC presenters flagged multiple DOC asks: increases in “caseload” funding (initially $8.3 million, later amended in materials to $12.9 million), a proposed rise in the private‑prison per‑diem from $66.52 to $80 per day, and a medical caseload request that the committee said had ballooned in supplemental requests from a book figure of $5.5 million to a budget amendment near $24.2 million for the year.

For DOC leaders the immediate picture is operationally stark. Director Stansell told the committee the department currently has about 159 funded, available state beds while the jail backlog exceeds 700 people who have been sentenced to DOC custody but remain in county jails because prison beds are not available. That mismatch, he warned, will grow if new capacity is not funded: “Once we run out of beds, our options are drastic: we stop bringing people in, or we operate one‑for‑one when people are released,” he said, noting county jails will be strained and that public safety is affected when arrests and detentions cannot be processed normally.

DOC finance staff and prison operations leaders told members the JVC approved only partial supplemental funding: medical caseload and some contract medical lines were funded at 50%; the jail‑backlog supplemental was similarly cut to half, which DOC said will exhaust jail‑backlog funds by February unless further action is taken. DOC outlined potential offsets in its FY27 request, including keeping the state share of inmate phone costs at 75% instead of moving to 100% as previously scheduled, and other line realignments.

Committee members pushed back on the size of the private‑prison per‑diem increase. Several lawmakers noted counties currently receive $77 per day for housing DOC inmates, and county officials and JBC staff had told the committee that in practice per‑day costs—including medical and transport—can be substantially higher; DOC and JBC said private providers presented operational cost numbers in negotiations. Mitch Carstens (DOC finance) said the per‑diem proposal reflects what vendors say they need to keep beds in operation.

A central theme in the hearing was that rising prison population in 2025 has been driven more by declines in releases than by increases in new admissions. Legislative Council Staff economist Dr. Elizabeth Ramey presented the December 2025 LCS prison‑population forecast and told members the prison population accelerated in calendar‑year 2025 (averaging roughly +72 inmates per month through November) after years of slower growth; the forecast was revised upward relative to 2024 because releases—particularly discretionary parole—have fallen. DOC staff confirmed the Parole Board and parole‑supervision practices influence that dynamic.

The parole system itself drew sustained scrutiny. Kito (Keto) Best, director of adult parole, described a multi‑point response to recent reliability problems with the department’s CST community‑risk assessments: increased supervisory involvement; a program of fidelity reviews (targeting at least 30% of completed assessments for audit); refresher training and a plan for a centralized Parole Intake Assessment Center intended to professionalize and standardize assessments at intake. Best told the committee the aim is to improve the “risk‑need‑responsivity” chain—from assessment to case plan to treatment—so supervision levels match the assessed risk and to reduce technical parole violations (TPVs) that lead to re‑admissions.

DOC and union witnesses described the human side of the fiscal stress. Colorado WINS stewards said the staffing crisis is severe: mandatory overtime and frequent cross‑posting of non‑custody staff into custody roles are eroding staff safety and program delivery. Union stewards Abraham Medina and Dana Mueller testified that thousands of hours of program and casework were diverted to cover security posts in 2025, reducing parole‑planning capacity and slowing the completion of programming required for release. DOC leaders acknowledged the workforce challenge and emphasized recruitment and targeted retention efforts, but warned that many staffing problems stem from statewide labor markets and leave rates.

What happens next: the committee was told the JVC had negotiated partial funding for some supplements and denied or reduced others; DOC emphasized multiple approaches to manage capacity—short‑term use of privately operated beds, temporary double‑bunking in limited settings, pursuit of legislative authorization to use additional statutory beds (e.g., Centennial, Rifle), or capital investments in facility upgrades (such as perimeter fences to change facility security levels). LCS analysts cautioned that small deviations in the timing of releases and admissions can materially change capacity needs, and they urged lawmakers to consider both operational fixes and policy options that affect prison population over time.

Provenance: committee discussion and JBC/DOC presentations (topic start SEG 097; topic end SEG 3439). Ending: the hearing recessed for additional items and public testimony; DOC and LCS materials were provided to the committee for follow‑up. The Department of Corrections said it stands ready to provide further data on operational costs, bed‑level specifics, and details on the supplemental funding timeline.

Quotes in this article come from testimony in the record: “We currently have 159 funded available beds… our jail backlog is over 700,” Director Stansell told the committee; LCS’s Dr. Elizabeth Ramey said the jail backlog and slowing releases drove a revision in the forecast; Adult Parole Director Kito Best said the division will increase supervisory reviews and create a Parole Intake Assessment Center to improve CST fidelity.

Ending note: The committee left the hearing with outstanding data requests (detailed PAR/ PED and table‑list numbers, per‑bed cost breakdowns, and DOC audit response progress) and with a clear signal that parole‑assessment fidelity, staffing and the jail backlog are central constraints on both policy and budget choices in coming weeks.