By John Ferrugia
The Denver Channel
BROOMFIELD, Colo. — An $11 million jail addition sits empty in Broomfield while the city has spent over $125,000 to incarcerate overflow inmates from its existing jail in outside facilities, a CALL7 Investigation found.
The new addition was completed in August 2010 and was built after an outside consultant convinced the city that the jail population would increase far beyond its 80-bed capacity. However, Broomfield Deputy Police Chief Jim Pfankuch says the old jail has not reached that capacity in more than four years.
The hiccup is that the women’s area of the older facility has only eight beds, but there have been more than 14 female inmates at various times. So, while dozens of new cells, thousands of square feet of common space and recreation areas sit empty, the city is paying to incarcerate these female inmates at other jails because it can’t afford to open the new addition to its own jail.
Full story: Broomfield spending big money housing inmates at other jails while $11 million addition sits empty