Imprisoning the budget

As inmate population booms, state faces a crisis

Colorado is taking a hard look at its prison-sentencing system, and not a moment too soon.

Between 1985 and 2005, Colorado's prison population quintupled, rising from 4,000 to 20,000 inmates. Two years from now, the population will probably reach 25,000, meaning the number of prison inmates will have risen more than six times in 24 years. In the same period, the state's entire population rose by only about 1.5 times.

The exploding prison population comes with a significant price tag: It costs between $40,000 and $90,000 to build each new prison bed, and it costs about $26,000 annually to incarcerate each inmate. With 1,000 extra convicts a year, it all adds up.

But it doesn't compute within the confines of the state budget. In 2005, the Colorado Department of Corrections spent about $533 million, up from $57 million in 1985. In short, the cost of state prisons has risen about six times faster than the population that must fund prisons.

Why does state population matter? Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, passed in 1992, limits the growth of state revenue to the rate of inflation plus population growth. It also limits spending growth to no more than 6 percent annually.

Even with the five-year TABOR "time out" voters approved last year, the prison problem will prove difficult to manage. And since the supply of beds is so costly, it only makes sense to consider the demand.

The steady rise of the prison population is partly a product of stiff sentencing laws passed by the Legislature. The effect is a burgeoning population of inmates guilty of committing lower-level drug offenses and other non-violent crimes.

Last week, the Colorado Lawyers Committee released a report recommending the establishment of a sentencing commission, the Rocky Mountain News reported. Sentencing commissions have helped 17 states curb their prison expenditures and add a dose of reason to sentencing guidelines.

Highlighting the commissions' effectiveness, the lawyers' group noted the experience of North Carolina, which, with the help of a sentencing commission, cut its prison population by more than half in four years, the News reported.

The North Carolina Legislature adopted a new sentencing structure that stiffened punishment for violent offenders and encouraged alternative sentences for non-violent criminals. Such a system, the lawyers' group noted, might not be right for Colorado. But we would be remiss if we did not at least explore the options.

Some lawmakers are ready to take up the cause. During last fall's campaign, for instance, State Rep. Jack Pommer, a Boulder Democrat, effectively and chillingly outlined the clear and present need to confront this issue.

Sentencing commissions and sentencing guidelines are not intrinsically captivating. The topics become more compelling when one considers the looming budgetary havoc. When they return to work this week, legislators should confront this issue in earnest.

Dems want "new energy future"

By Todd Neff
03:44 p.m., January 17, 2007
DENVER — The state’s Democratic leaders will introduce at least a dozen energy-related bills during the 2007 legislative session, ranging from upping Colorado’s renewable energy output to adding power transmission lines to the state’s green-energy hotbeds.

Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Coal Creek Canyon, House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder, and other Democratic leaders announced their plans to "literally embark on a new energy future for Colorado," as Madden put it, at a Wednesday news conference at the Capitol. Gov. Bill Ritter also spoke at the event, and representatives from Xcel Energy, the Rocky Mountain Farmer’s Union, wind-energy and environmental groups stood behind the podium.

"We’re going to play a leadership role in a way that in the long run makes a difference in the national energy economy and energy independence," Ritter said.

The legislators highlighted five bills, all of which remain works in process. They range from support for biofuel projects and money for school renewable-energy projects to standards for "net metering," which allows consumers to sell excess solar, wind or other power back to the utility. The two with the biggest potential impact relate to increasing the state’s energy-transmission capacity and raising the percentage of renewable energy Colorado utilities generate above the limits instituted by Amendment 37.

State Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, said he’s working on a bill that would require utilities to produce 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. Amendment 37, the state renewable-energy portfolio passed by voters in 2004, requires major utilities to provide 10 percent of energy through renewable means by 2015.

Pommer said he’s still working on the bill’s specifics but it could include smaller rural electric associations, a move Ritter said he would support.

Ray Clifton, executive director of the Colorado Rural Electric Association representing 22 member cooperatives, said the association would not comment on specific bills until they could review them. But he said associations should reserve the right to opt out of any such bill, as the Intermountain Rural Electric Association and United Power, which serves parts of eastern Boulder County, did with Amendment 37.

Xcel Energy is investigating how much renewable energy could be introduced to the system without wind power’s inherent ebbs and surges harming it, spokesman Tom Henley said.

He said Xcel supports a Fitz-Gerald-sponsored bill to help energy companies build or upgrade transmission lines by charging customers an estimated 0.5 percent surcharge on monthly bills during construction. Customers generally pay for such infrastructure as part of the price of electricity when it’s eventually delivered. Overhead transmission lines cost between $750,000 and $1 million a mile, she said.

The idea, Fitz-Gerald said, is to boost transmission capacity to the eastern plains, the San Luis Valley and other renewable-energy hot spots.

Fred Grantham, general manager of the Morgan County Rural Electric Association, questioned the cost estimate, saying buried power lines cost two or three times more, and that such costs of right-of-way procurement would add to the bill.

Madden said Democrats are doing what the public has said it wants and that utilities should follow suit.

"Before Amendment 37 passed, we heard the sky would fall," Madden said. "The sky did not fall, apparently. It’s an industry that doesn’t want to change."

Contact Camera Staff Writer Todd Neff at (303) 473-1327 or nefft@dailycamera.com.