The inmate population at the expanded Bent County Correctional Facility has now topped 1,000 for the first time.
Assistant Warden Steve Brown last week told county commissioners there were 1,010 prisoners now residing at the facility as of March 3.
The total inmate capacity at BCCF is 1,465 after Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) completed an expansion project last year.
CCA operates the privately-run prison under a contract from the state that passes through the Bent County government as a local overseer.
Jim Brittain is the county’s prison monitor and in his report to commissioners he noted CCA is operating its facility at a lower cost than at the state prisons run by Colorado Department of Corrections.
Brittan said maximum security prisons operated by DOC cost an average $91.90 a day per prisoner. At the minimum security prisons the state is paying $61.86 to house its inmate.
In comparison, the Bent County prison — which is a medium security facility — is paid $52.68 a day for each inmate it holds.
Brittain explained one of his concerns when he was a warden was making sure inmates had jobs or program assignments to go to so as not to be idle during the day.
Of the 1,000 inmates at BCCF, he said 85 percent had educational or modification programs or jobs to give structure to their day.
Ideally, he would like to see at least 90 percent of the inmates occupied productively each day, which helps boost their morale.
While federal estimates indicate 15 percent of all prison populations are not functional in English, Brown said their internal study showed only two percent of the BCCF population were passably fluent in English.
Brittain said that prison populations overall are about 15 percent Hispanic “and that number has stayed constant over many years.”
In other action, commissioners approved another contract for Kathy Fineau through her KSF Strategic Services to administer Phase V of the County Courthouse renovation. The contract approves a payment of $3,375. And she will also be paid $8,000 for Phase VI, which involves more money from Colorado Department of Transportation.
“There is a lot more work to do,” Commission Chairman Bill Long said.
A day later, at another meeting, Commissioner Tom Wallace said it now looks like the Courthouse might be able to house the displaced offices in late May. But he added that the timeline has kept moving back as the project progressed.
The Courthouse was closed Friday so that the county clerk operation could move across the hall to allow workers to renovate the clerk’s office.
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The inmate population at the expanded Bent County Correctional Facility has now topped 1,000 for the first time.
Assistant Warden Steve Brown last week told county commissioners there were 1,010 prisoners now residing at the facility as of March 3.
The total inmate capacity at BCCF is 1,465 after Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) completed an expansion project last year.
CCA operates the privately-run prison under a contract from the state that passes through the Bent County government as a local overseer.
Jim Brittain is the county’s prison monitor and in his report to commissioners he noted CCA is operating its facility at a lower cost than at the state prisons run by Colorado Department of Corrections.
Brittan said maximum security prisons operated by DOC cost an average $91.90 a day per prisoner. At the minimum security prisons the state is paying $61.86 to house its inmate.
In comparison, the Bent County prison — which is a medium security facility — is paid $52.68 a day for each inmate it holds.
Brittain explained one of his concerns when he was a warden was making sure inmates had jobs or program assignments to go to so as not to be idle during the day.
Of the 1,000 inmates at BCCF, he said 85 percent had educational or modification programs or jobs to give structure to their day.
Ideally, he would like to see at least 90 percent of the inmates occupied productively each day, which helps boost their morale.
While federal estimates indicate 15 percent of all prison populations are not functional in English, Brown said their internal study showed only two percent of the BCCF population were passably fluent in English.
Brittain said that prison populations overall are about 15 percent Hispanic “and that number has stayed constant over many years.”
In other action, commissioners approved another contract for Kathy Fineau through her KSF Strategic Services to administer Phase V of the County Courthouse renovation. The contract approves a payment of $3,375. And she will also be paid $8,000 for Phase VI, which involves more money from Colorado Department of Transportation.
“There is a lot more work to do,” Commission Chairman Bill Long said.
A day later, at another meeting, Commissioner Tom Wallace said it now looks like the Courthouse might be able to house the displaced offices in late May. But he added that the timeline has kept moving back as the project progressed.
The Courthouse was closed Friday so that the county clerk operation could move across the hall to allow workers to renovate the clerk’s office.
