If you want a clean example of how the state “balances” its books, here it is. Sentinel Colorado covered how Colorado’s packed state prisons are pushing sentenced inmates into county jails across the state, including right here in Weld County.
This is happening in county jails while folks are waiting to transfer to the Department of Corrections, and the state only partially reimburses counties for the cost. When the state drags its feet, counties pay the bill.
The Bullet Point Brief
- State prisons are near capacity, so counties are holding people sentenced to state prison while they wait to transfer.
- The state reimbursement rate is $77.16 per person per day, set by the Legislature.
- Weld County’s cost to house one person in jail in 2024 was $185.51 per day, leaving a $108.35 per-person daily deficit after reimbursement.
- Weld County spends over $1 million a year in county funds to hold people sentenced to state prison.
- Weld County’s jail currently has 54 people awaiting transfer to state custody, and 21 have been there over 40 days.
My Bottom Line
This infuriates me, because it is the same old trick: the state makes a state problem into a county bill. They call it “capacity.” We call it a tab.
Weld County is fiscally responsible. We have no county debt. No sales tax. We tightly watch our budgets and seek efficiencies everywhere possible. The state cannot make that claim, so they play their budget games on the backs of counties.
If Denver wants to run the prison system, Denver should pay for the prison system.
$1 million a year is the unfunded mandate the state places on the backs of Weld County taxpayers.
This needs to stop. The state should either transfer people in a timely fashion or reimburse counties at the actual cost. Anything else is just the state outsourcing its responsibilities and sending the invoice to your property tax bill.
Source: Sentinel Colorado
