Panel OKs limits on sending inmates out of state

April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 17, 2006 at midnight

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Sen. Deanna Hanna scored a small victory Monday when a Senate committee advanced her bill to stop Colorado from housing its most dangerous inmates at medium-security prisons outside the state.

Senate Bill 23 is designed to plug loopholes in state law to prohibit the Department of Corrections from placing high-security inmates at private prisons in states that are not equipped to handle them.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday voted 4-3 to forward the proposal to the full Senate.

"It's a security and safety issue," said Hanna, D-Lakewood. "At the prison in Mississippi, they were used to having medium-security prisoners, and we sent high-security prisoners there that caused some serious problems."

A 2005 state audit found Colorado sent leaders of prison gangs involved in six disturbances in Colorado facilities to a medium-security lockup in Mississippi to ease overcrowding here.

The Colorado Department of Corrections was forced to bring 121 of its most dangerous prisoners home from Mississippi after they were involved in two riots in an understaffed private facility.

But Rep. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, and Sen. Jim Dyer, R-Littleton, called the proposed changes unnecessary. The lawmakers argued it would hamper the state's ability to ease overcrowding at a time when Colorado has run out of prison space.

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