The state adult prison and parole system, which faced a critical capacity issue just 10 months ago, has experienced a dramatic decline in 2020, according to a Friday report to the Joint Budget Committee.

Overall, prison populations have declined 16.4% since February, according to Elizabeth Ramey, an economist with the Legislative Council. That includes those committed to corrections, both in state and private prisons; those in community corrections programs, and those awaiting intake into the state corrections system from county jails.

The decline in prison populations has been more substantial for women inmates than men, Ramey said.

The state’s vacancy rate, at 1% in February, which was a concern for lawmakers, is now at 19%.

It’s in the pipeline that produces prison populations that’s seen some of the sharpest declines. With courts at reduced operations, commitments have fallen by some 28%, Ramey said. That reflects a significant decline in case filings, jury trials, reduced court capacity and fewer proceedings.

Among the biggest drops: state district court drug felony case filings, down 61.7% since the pandemic began, Ramey said.

The state’s prison population will continue to decline into 2021. It should “bottom out” by the summer, and with court commitments returning to normal, populations will begin increasing in the latter part of 2021. That bottoming out could be as low as 15,967 inmates, down from a high of 20,623 in 2015 and 19,951 at the start of 2020.

Juvenile populations in the Division of Youth Services have also declined in all areas: commitments, detention and parole. Those drops in population are expected to remain below 2020 levels through 2023, according to the forecast.

JBC member Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat who has worked extensively on criminal justice reform, said she looked forward to her new role on the committee. “Clearly there are more reforms that need to be made,” she said, “but we see how direct an impact this has on the budget” and how dramatically different the numbers are from a year ago.

Last March, Gov. Jared Polis issued an executive order in an effort to reduce the prison populations during the pandemic. About 300 inmates were released under that order, which was allowed to expire in May.

Since then, COVID-19 has raged at the state’s public and private prisons. Currently, more than 6,300 inmates have contracted the disease, along with more than 900 prison or corrections staff. At least 17 inmates have died from the disease, according to the most recent data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado has filed several lawsuits against the state this year to compel the state to release medically vulnerable inmates. In November, the department of corrections said it would hire a consultant to help identify and protect those inmates, as part of a partial settlement of a May lawsuit. However, ACLU is still pushing for the state to release more inmates, stating that the risk from COVID-19 amounts to a violation of inmates’ Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment.

Related: ACLU, Department of Corrections reach settlement over prison coronavirus protocols

Polis said in a recent news conference that he does not intend to prioritize inmates to get vaccinated against COVID-19 before other vulnerable members of the public.