It costs the Colorado Department of Corrections $57,000 to treat each of 32 inmates infected with Hepatitis C with expensive new drugs that have had a 100 percent success rate.

That cost did not sit well with members of the Colorado House and Senate Judiciary committees when the Joint Budget Committee presented the figures during a Tuesday, Jan. 17, Joint Rule 25 hearing. Such hearings are held to keep committees informed of agency and department developments and funding requests within their jurisdiction.

“That’s a huge amount of money,” said state Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee. “Are these the only drugs they can get, how can we reduce those costs?”

JBC chairman Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, told Salazar that the department’s guidelines for treating inmates are different than others, and the specific drug administered also depends on each doctor’s recommendation. The costs are paid by the state, no federal money is involved, he noted.

“These two drugs are very effective in curing the virus, but there’s still a question about reinfection,” Lambert said. “There is a a hope that when these two drugs are patented, the cost might come down.”

Salazar said he hoped that would happen.

The JBC’s budget summary document presented to committee members noted there are currently an estimated 2,280 inmates infected with Hepatitis C, a virus transmitted by contact with the blood of an infected person, most commonly through intravenous drug use. The department treats about 32 of these offenders annually using new drugs, such as Solvaldi and Harvoni, at a cost of about $57,000 per treated inmate. The 32 are among the most seriously ill due to liver damage caused by Hepatitis C.

The department has had excellent results with the new drugs, the budget summary continued; 100 percent of the offenders treated to date have undetectable levels of the virus and are believed cured, though treatment does not mean they are immune against reinfection. The department is asking lawmakers to redirect $2 million of its general fund appropriation for personal services to pay for an expansion of its Hepatitis C program. Of that amount, $700,000 would come from the medical services subprogram and $1.3 million from the mental health subprogram. That would allow another 32 offenders to be treated each year.

The corrections department made other budget revision requests, JBC member Dominick Moreno, D-Westminster, explained. Those included a new mother-baby unit at La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo. The unit will hold mothers and their infants and toddlers as well as expectant mothers. The children will stay with mom until age 2½, when they will leave the prison to stay with a relative or someone else.

The department plans to open the unit in February 2018 and expects it to host 8 mothers and expectant mothers in the first five months of operation. In fiscal year 2018-19 and following years, the department expects the unit to host 20 mothers and expectant mothers. To fund the unit for this fiscal year, the department wants lawmakers to redirect $328,884 of general fund money from the department’s mental health program, add 0.7 FTE for social workers to staff the unit, and $10,000 in cash funds to allow the department to spend any gifts, grants, and donations the unit may receive.

House Judiciary Committee member Adrienne Benavidez, D-Commerce City, said she did not think there were a lot of “best practices” the department could use to ensure mothers and babies were given the best care.

“And I don’t think they’ve totally thought through the safety issues involved with having babies in prison,” she added.

The JBC budget summary also noted the department’s sex offender treatment and monitoring program had been unable to hire and retain the full number of staff lawmakers approved in the budget bill, so two of the department’s budget requests would redirect some of that money away from the program. One of those requests is to transfer $1.5 million from the sex offender treatment and parole program to maintenance needs in this and following fiscal years.

“This may be an acknowledgement by the department that the program will not be fully staffed for the foreseeable future,” the document added.

House Judiciary Committee member Yeulin Willet, R-Grand Junction, wondered if the state is wasting money in the sex offender treatment program, and if there are not enough vendors and services to meet the needs.

Lambert agreed that rural areas where most state prisons are located do not have a pool of qualified specialists to fill the positions.

The JBC budget summary also noted lawmakers do not have enough information to decide how Colorado’s private prisons compare to their public counterparts, despite 20 years of experience with private facilities.

“Nor does it have enough information to decide if Colorado’s private prisons have gotten better or worse over time,” the summary continued, and noted an analysis recommended the per diem for private prisons be substantially higher.

Other corrections department requests are to add three teachers to the restrictive housing unit staff at the Sterling Correctional Facility, and transfer funds to maintenance and operating, food service equipment and cover higher food costs.