Election Night 2006 And Prison Spending
- November 8, 2006
The first and most basic duty of Colorado’s criminal justice system is to protect the innocent from force and fraud. And as a government service, the roughly $32,000 (average cost)1 taxpayers spend annually per state prisoner is a good bargain for the separation of violent and predatory criminals from the public.
READ MOREColorado unemployment rose back up to 7.5 percent in December. We remain in an economic slump. Gov. Bill Ritter has implemented and proposed a wide variety of net tax hikes and fees. The state budget remains in shambles.
READ MORERun Time: 0:19:14 MP3 10/02/09 Over the last twenty years, prison spending in Colorado has gone from less than 3 percent to nearly 9 percent of general fund spending in Colorado. The legislature’s ability to effectively impact prison spending lies in it prerogative to write sentencing and parole law. The Colorado Commission on Criminal and
READ MOREOver the past few weeks, there has been a lot of concern in some quarters about President Obama’s Executive Order extending certain legal immunities to the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol. These concerns are misplaced.
READ MORERepublicans often claim to be the party of fiscal conservatism and limited government. But Republican lawmakers in Colorado show little enthusiasm for applying those principles to Colorado’s hugely expensive prison bureaucracy. So when sentencing reform bills pop up in the next legislative session, it will be an excellent opportunity for Republicans to show if they really are the party of fiscal discipline, or if they are going to leave the heavy lifting to the Democrat majority.
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