Littwin: Colorado faces a $1.5 billion budget deficit. Can we really afford to add a prison now?

Costs to Colorado of mass incarceration are too great

(Photo by txking via Getty Images)Colorado incarcerates people at a higher rate than Iran and Russia combined. According to the most recent figures from the Prison Policy Initiative, 556 of every 100,000 people in Colorado are locked up. That’s compared to 300 in Russia, 228 in Iran and 165 in China, all deeply repressive countries that Americans like to imagine are less free than the U.S. In August, the state prison inmate population exceeded 1…

Littwin: Colorado faces a $1.5 billion budget deficit. Can we really afford to add a prison now?

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