Brief by Central Staff
Corrections – February 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Colorado economy is hurting, and the pain is apparent in the mountains, where counties face lower sales-tax revenues on account of declining tourism, which has causes like drought and wildfires.
At their convention last December in Colorado Springs, county commissioners asked Gov. Bill Owens for help in lowering insurance costs, expanding water storage, and increasing tourism promotion.
And then there was the request from Jerry Bergeman, a Teller County commissioner. He wanted more state prisoners for the county’s 100-bed jail near Woodland Park.
“The more prisoners we put in our jails, the more it helps our local economy,” Bergeman said. “We need the prisoners for the revenues.”
The governor said he’d try to help. Prison population sometimes exceeds the state’s capacity, and when that happens, Owens would send more inmates to county jails, rather than to out-of-state prisons.
And if that isn’t enough, we suppose someone could ask the legislature to define more activities as crimes, and to increase sentences. Apparently, we need to forget the old saying that “Crime doesn’t pay,” since it’s now a form of economic development in Colorado.
