State cuts threaten project

FORT COLLINS — State budget cuts may postpone plans for a new 32,000-square-foot community corrections facility in Larimer County.

Proposed to be built next to the sheriff’s administration building on Midpoint Drive in Fort Collins, the facility would create 176 beds for felony offenders.

Community corrections is a county department, but its funding comes from the state. While Gov. Bill Owens plans an increase in funding for the prison system in 2003, community corrections is slated for budget reductions and a reduction in the number of state-funded community corrections beds.

“We were hoping they’d add more beds,´ said Larimer County Manager Frank Lancaster. “Now we’re putting the whole project back under the microscope. We may need to hold off or we may resize it.”

The $5.5 million proposal would replace the current facility at 502 W. Laurel St. Community needs have outgrown the old building’s 15,600 square feet and 92-bed capacity, Lancaster said.

Community corrections serves two types of clients, diversionary and transitional. Diversion clients are sentenced to community corrections as an alternative to prison, and transition clients are inmates who are preparing themselves for parole.

The program offers residential and nonresidential programs, depending on the court’s determination; treatment includes counseling programs for drug and alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, anger management and financial guidance. The strictly supervised residential facility requires clients to go to work, enabling them to pay a stipend for their time in community corrections, restitution to the victims and the courts, and earn some savings to smooth their re-entrance into the community.

Some offenders who qualify for community corrections programs are forced to spend time in jail or remain in prison because of the capacity shortage, which is an expensive alternative, said Joe Ferrando, director of Larimer County Community Corrections. Ferrando said it costs government $37.72 per day to house one person in community corrections, $64 per day in county jail and $74.66 per day in state prison.

“Right now there are 42 waiting in county jail, and another 35 in state prison who are approved to come into the (community corrections) facility,” Ferrando said.

The department has allocated $4.2 million of the total proposed budget for a design-build contract for the new facility. The contract proposal calls for an initial phase of 176 beds and 40 parking spaces, with the ability to add another 184 beds and 20 parking spaces.

“Our department is solely responsible for the financing,” Ferrando said, “It’s not a tax initiative. We have to be able to pay for it with our revenues.”

Initial funding would come from a $350,000 state grant, revenues paid to the department by the state for providing the services and the sale of the old facility on West Laurel.

Bids for the old building are being accepted through Jan. 15 and are expected to be in the $1 million range. The county would require a lease-back scenario until the new building is completed at the end of 2003 or early 2004.

“We really hope it goes forward,” Lancaster said. “It saves money all around and it’s better to have people in community corrections than in prison or jail.”

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