Colorado’s prison population plan was designed to prevent overcrowding.

Instead, eight months after it was triggered, the system remains strained and largely ineffective, prompting two Democratic lawmakers to push for changes through new legislation.

According to its sponsors, Senate Bill 036 would raise the vacancy‑rate threshold that triggers the plan from 3% to 4% and require the Department of Corrections to provide more detailed reports

The House Judiciary Committee narrowly passed the measure on a 4-3 vote, with both Republican committee members and Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, voting against it.

The bill will now be heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Adrienne Sanchez, who represents the Colorado Department of Corrections, said the state agency could not support the bill in its current form but is “committed to refining it” to “ensure appropriate trigger percentages and clean processes that support efficient population management without sacrificing public safety.”

Effective prison population management relies on more than just percentages, Sanchez said. Individuals who are eligible for release must demonstrate that they are ready to reenter society and have resources to support their transition.

Sanchez added, “Successful reentry requires a stable handoff: verifying housing, securing treatment beds, and coordinating with parole officers.”

The prison population management plan, created by lawmakers in 2018, sets procedures for when the statewide prison vacancy rate drops below 3% for 30 consecutive days. That threshold was reached for the first time last August, prompting Gov. Jared Polis to activate the plan, which includes the early release of certain eligible inmates.

Overcrowding in Colorado’s state prisons has been a mounting concern for months. County sheriffs first raised alarms in May about the shortage of available prison beds, which has pushed more people into already strained local jails.

The measures triggered under the population management plan have had little to no effect on the state’s overall prison population over the last year.

Sen. Mike Weissman, an Aurora Democrat and one of the bill’s authors, said that of the roughly 15,000 people in Colorado’s correctional facilities, just over 200 have appeared before the parole board, noting that only about 12% of them were granted parole. The bill’s other sponsor is Sen. Julie Gonzales.

The prison population management measures, according to Weissman, are about “looking really, really, really hard at the DOC population to see who maybe has shown some indicia of change and can go to the parole board, and are they going to decide that they can release people, or perhaps not.”

By introducing Senate Bill 036, Weissman and Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, said it will help increase the vacancy rate threshold from 3% to 4% and expand reporting requirements for the corrections agency.

Additionally, the bill requires the agency to submit monthly population updates and to include estimates of the population reduction needed to increase the vacancy rate to 5% or higher.

If passed, sponsors said SB 036 would set new requirements for community corrections facilities, or halfway houses. These include reviewing the eligibility of certain inmates for intensive supervision programs and evaluating whether to expand the number of available transition beds.

If the prison vacancy rate doesn’t exceed 5% within 120 days of the plan’s activation, the bill requires the DOC to submit to the governor and parole board a list of inmates who are eligible for parole and recommend either transferring them to community corrections or another form of release, such as commutation of their sentence.

Tom Raynes of the Colorado District Attorneys Council argued that part of the reason the state is seeing such a high prison population is a lack of facilities — the state has closed seven prisons in the last decade, he said.

He objected to a provision of the bill that was ultimately amended out, but would have allowed certain inmates to be released up to 90 days before their parole eligibility date if the prison population management plan was in effect.

“It seems kind of like, if nothing else works, then let’s just take this category and get them out early,” Raynes said.

Supporters say it’s a step forward

Colorado is at a “turning point” with how it manages its prison system, said Kyle Giddings of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.

While the governor’s office and DOC are asking for funding for a new prison, the system currently in place “lacks clear planning and transparency around how those resources are used,” Giddings said. “This bill starts to address that gap.”

Because the original law establishing the prison population management plan didn’t include certain transparency requirements, it is not entirely clear why the plan hasn’t significantly reduced the state’s prison population, Giddings said.

Senate Bill 036 makes that 2018 law work as it was originally intended, he said.

“Without tools like this, the default becomes expansion, and expansion is the most expensive option available to the state,” he said. “It locks us into long-term costs without addressing the underlying issues: how we manage the population we already have.”

Devon Lee, a parole case manager with the DOC and a member of the state employees’ union, said prison overcrowding puts the safety of both inmates and staff at risk.

Lee said he’s seen many people who should be released on parole “caught in the bottleneck.” He and his colleagues have been forced to cover vacant positions, such as security, meaning they have less time to do their assigned jobs, all while the case load increases due to high population numbers.

“The programs that make rehabilitation possible have been drastically reduced, and that makes it very difficult for the dozens of individuals who have passed their parole eligibility date to be approved for release,” Lee said. “Passing this into law will bring more transparency and more accountability around what the DOC is doing to reduce the incarcerated population.”

Others, such as District Attorney George Brauchler of the 23rd Judicial District, have countered that prison overcrowding is an artificial crisis, manufactured by what he described as a “Democrat-led prison-closing frenzy.

In an opinion piece, he said it’s the result of the “predictable, deliberate and unnecessary outcome of Democrat political decision-making that has long prioritized offenders over public safety and victims.”

As for parolees, Colorado now has 50% more as of 2024 compared to 2003.  

Brauchler said the Democrat-majority in the legislature has made it “harder to incarcerate felons, easier to reduce prison sentences for committing felonies (including murder), and have made it harder to return felons to prison for violating the terms of their parole.”