Private Colorado Springs prison to close in March
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The Colorado Department of Corrections was given 60 days' notice that the GEO corporation intends to close the Cheyenne Mountain Re-Entry Center.
The CMRC is a Level 3 private prison in southeast Colorado Springs that currently houses 650 male inmates.
The decision to close -- by March 7 -- comes after several months of ongoing contract discussions with the leadership at CMRC and their leading organization, GEO, said the Department of Corrections in a release Tuesday. The CDOC had raised concerns about the CMRC's operations, inability to provide appropriate treatment, lack of offender programs, staffing level issues and turn-over rate.
“While we had been maintaining regular communications with the GEO Corporation regarding our serious concerns about their current operations and the terms of our contract with them, we had simultaneously been preparing for the very real concern that they would choose to rapidly close the facility," said Department of Corrections Executive Director Dean Williams. "Although we are disappointed by their decision, we are confident that as a department we will be able to manage the considerable impact of this change safely. The use of private prisons in our state does not just raise philosophical or ethical questions, but also creates serious operational concerns when a for-profit company can choose to close its doors and leave the department to navigate what to do with 650 offenders.”
According to the statement, the CDOC had been in communication with the Governor and Legislature over the past few months about the possible closure. Part of the Governor's budget proposal for this year was allocated towards removing the inmates from CMRC and redistributing the current population "to increase safety across our facilities," said the CDOC.
To help with the inmate relocation, CDOC proposed reopening two towers of Centennial South in Canon City. That facility was completed in 2010 but closed in 2012 and is not currently in use.
Should Centennial South reopen, close-custody offenders would be moved to that facility, while former CMRC inmates would move to fill their vacated beds, according to the CDOC.
