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Violence rising in Colorado prisons

Associated Press

DENVER — Colorado prisons are overflowing with violent offenders who are being housed in medium-security correctional institutions, prompting a rise in violence, a state prison official said.

Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said the inmates who are supposed to be held in the highest-security facilities were mainly responsible for an increase of assaults against other staffers and inmates in 2008. Prison officials also said that in three separate cases where inmates were killed since November, the suspects should’ve been housed in higher-security facilities.

A $208 million maximum-security prison is being completed this summer with 948 beds in Cañon City, but a lack of state funding will prevent it from opening in the near future. To run the facility and pay for staff, it would cost $20.5 million.

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