Brief by Central Staff
Prisons – March 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
Working at a prison may not be the safest job in the world, but at the federal Supermax near Florence, there’s another danger besides fractious inmates — contaminated soil under the prison that can make staffers and inmates sick.
Essay by Ray James
Prisons – October 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
WHEN U.S. District Judge Richard Nottingham sentenced me to 70 months in prison on June 27, 1997, I did not realize that his tough, but fair decision–his words, not mine–represented a pivotal, perhaps even life-saving, action. My court-appointed attorney, Terri Harrington, asked the judge to allow 15 days before I surrendered to the U.S. Marshals to begin serving the sentence.
Review by Ed Quillen
Prisons – October 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine
Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing
by Ted Conover
Published in 2000 by Random House
ISBN 0-375-50177-0
Brief by Central Staff
Prisons – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Prison walls do not keep inmates from practicing their faith — the Colorado Department of Corrections identifies 53 different religions inside state facilities, and attempts to accommodate them as best it can while maintaining order and security.
The 1,289 inmates at the Buena Vista Correction Facility fall into six groups. Most are Protestant, followed by Roman Catholic and Islam.
Sidebar by Ed Quillen
Prisons – November 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Use Tax Could Work Against Local Merchants
Chaffee County plans to pay for building a new jail with a use tax on automobiles and construction materials.
In essence, a use tax is a way to make sure that a sales tax is paid.
Sidebar by Ed Quillen
Prisons – November 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
Chaffee County’s old and crowded jail is hardly a unique problem.
Lake County Sheriff David Duarte runs a jail built with the Leadville courthouse in 1958. In 1995, he averaged 14.9 inmates per day; that rose to 20 in 1996, “and fourteen is overcrowding this jail.” He’s had to house inmates in Clear Creek County, and “we’ve got a committee looking into a new jail.”
Article by Ed Quillen
Prisons – November 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
In this election in Chaffee County, we get to decide about building a new jail.
For starters, there’s little argument that the county needs one. The current slammer, in the bowels of the west wing of the courthouse, was built thirty years ago to accommodate a dozen prisoners. Now it often holds twice that many, or more.
Letter by Jerry Mosier
Prisons – November 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
Prisons don’t work, so let’s build more of ’em
Editor:
I turned 22 in prison, a member of the first group of guards hired in 1961 under Kansas Civil Service; prior hirings had been a tradition of political patronage.
And, until I typed this, I had not taken into account that I was there at the beginning of the trend toward bureaucracy, professionalism, and protectionism that has seen salaries of correctional officers increase tenfold from the $267 per month that I received before taxes for six-day weeks.
Letter from J.T. Mosier
Prisons – October 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
Chico residents thrilled by benefits of new jail
Editors:
Congratulations, dear friends and neighbors in Chaffee County, on being selected to receive a state-of-the-art jail tailored to cash in on the boom in bed-and-breakfast facilities for convicts in transit.
Brief by Central Staff
Prisons – September 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
Nobody knew his name, and his fingers had no prints…
At first, Custer County authorities had a real mystery on their hands.
After several cabin break-ins near Wetmore, a man was spotted hiding in a cabin on July 7, and the authorities were called.
Column by Hal Walter
Prisons – October 1996 – Colorado Central Magazine
Those of us foolish enough to think we are regional intellectuals have found it entertaining to snobbishly describe other Colorado locales as “sacrifice zones.” We’ve made up cute names for these places — The Front Strange, I-70 Industrial Tourism Ghetto, Christian Springs.