Thread: More foreign inmates crowding Colorado prisons

illegal immigration
More foreign inmates crowding Colorado prisons

By Kirk Mitchell

The Denver Post
Posted: 06/06/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT

A view of the outside of the maximum security Colorado state penitentiary in Canon City from 2005. (Glenn Asakawa, Denver Post file photo)

Criminals find their way to Colorado prisons from Mongolia, Iraq, the Czech Republic, the Fiji Islands and 75 other nations.

Those foreign inmates will likely be eligible for deportation as soon as their sentences are complete. In the meantime, they are among the fastest-growing segments of the state's prison population and a growing drain on already-scarce resources at the Department of Corrections.

Since 2005, the number of Colorado's foreign-born inmates has increased 51 percent to 1,953.

Those with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers have more than doubled in 10 years from 680 to 1,500, said Tom Clements, executive director of the state Department of Corrections.

"That's huge," Clements
A view of the Centennial Correctional Facility is located in east Canon City from a 2010 Denver Post file photo. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)
said.

Managing inmates who don't speak English requires interpreters. It is more costly and adds to the complexity of running prisons, he said.

While the cost for holding such inmates continues to rise, financial support that Colorado receives from the federal government is decreasing.

In a 2010 letter to federal authorities, state Attorney General John Suthers decried the $58 million price tag for holding the prisoners in fiscal year 2008. It costs more than $30,000 a year to house each of the inmates.

At the time, the federal government's State Criminal Alien Assistance Program reimbursed Colorado $3.3 million, or about 6 percent of the state's costs. The amount has since dropped to $2.9 million even as the number of foreign inmates continues to rise.

In 1996, by comparison, Colorado got $5.3 million from the same program and had only 618 foreign-born inmates, less than a third of the current number.

"To receive less than full reimbursement for the use of state facilities to house illegal immigrants is an unacceptable, unfunded federal mandate," Suthers said.

The most efficient way to reduce that population, and the expense, would be to turn over inmates who are eligible for deportation to federal authorities so they can be sent home.

Parole-board solution

Senate Bill 241, passed this year and sponsored by Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, and Steve King, R-Grand Junction, urges the Colorado parole board to parole "non-violent" foreign inmates with detainers who pose a medium risk of reoffending.

The bill says there will be a "presumption" subject to parole-board discretion that such offenders will be turned over to ICE for deportation.

Clements said his staff is determining how many inmates fall under the parameters of the bill and will present their names to the parole board. If ICE does not deport the inmates, the board could rescind the parole.

"It's not mandatory," Clements said. "The parole board can look at that and make a discretionary call."

Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said that in March 2009, the state changed a policy in which it would put foreign-born inmates on inactive parole when those inmates were turned over to ICE.

What was happening was that ICE would deport the offenders and they would return to California, Thornton said.

In 2007, California revoked paroles for 1,600 offenders who returned to the state after being deported and returned them to prison.

Under the new policy, foreign-born prisoners are discharged from parole when they are turned over to ICE after their prison sentences. If the offenders return to California, they can be prosecuted only for federal immigration violations and serve time in a federal prison, Thornton said.

It saved $10 million annually in prison costs, she said.

In Texas, violation to stay

Texas is pursuing a different solution.

The Texas House and Senate have passed HB 2734, and the bill is awaiting the governor's signature to become law. It would require the Texas parole board to make being an illegal immigrant a parole violation — essentially forcing a released inmate to leave the state or face a return to prison, even if ICE fails to deport them.

Currently, after Texas transfers illegal immigrants to ICE, the federal agency doesn't always deport the offenders and simply releases them in Texas. They often get picked up on new charges and clog state prisons.

The new law was billed as a measure that would save millions of dollars by reducing convictions, according to advocates.

Carl Rusnok, regional ICE spokesman, said most criminals with ICE detainers are deported but occasionally they are released in Colorado.

"It's possible," Rusnok said. "There are many different circumstances. It's on a case-by-case basis."

Clements, of the Colorado corrections department, said he plans to have his staff analyze the number of illegal immigrants who have repeatedly cycled through the state's prisons.

Like Suthers, his preference would be to have the federal government follow through on deportation. But, knowing that won't always happen, he thinks keeping even illegal immigrants on parole status provides the leverage needed to prevent them from committing new crimes if they remain in, or return to, the state.

"Foremost, I think we have to be concerned about safety," Clements said.

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com

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This is what we get for allowing 1 to 2 million legal and illegal immigrants into our country annually. The solution is to secure our borders tighter than a gnats behind, get serious about immigration enforcement, and reduce legal immigration to a more manageable number.

"Foremost, I think we have to be concerned about safety," Clements said.

Whew. That's good. How about a halfway house on your street where you could watch over them?

Colorado's Jails Full of Illegal Aliens


Written by R. Cort Kirkwood

Tuesday, 07 June 2011 16:59

Colorado is suffering a massive increase in the number of foreigners in its jails, and many of the miscreants are illegal aliens.

According to the Denver Post, the number has jumped 51 percent since 2005 to nearly 2000. As well, the paper reported, the number of foreigners with "detainers," meaning they are subject to deporation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has more than doubled since 2001.

Housing all these foreigners costs the taxpayers a fortune, and the authorities in Colorado are not happy about paying the bill.

Numbers

The paper reports than 1,953 inmates in state prison are foreigners. As well, those with detainers from ICE jumped from 680 to 1,500, the paper reported, quoting the area ICE director.

That cost the state some $58 million, or $30,000 a year per inmate, in 2008. According to the Post, in 2008, "the federal government's State Criminal Alien Assistance Program reimbursed Colorado $3.3 million, or about 6 percent of the state's costs. The amount has since dropped to $2.9 million even as the number of foreign inmates continues to rise. In 1996, by comparison, Colorado got $5.3 million from the same program and had only 618 foreign-born inmates, less than a third of the current number."

Those dollar figures don't set well with Attorney General John Suthers."To receive less than full reimbursement for the use of state facilities to house illegal immigrants is an unacceptable, unfunded federal mandate," he told the paper.

New Law

Such is the problem that state legislators want the prisons to parole "non-violent" offenders who likely won't commit a crime. According to the Post, SB 241, signed by the governor in late May, would permit the release of such prisoners, who would then be turned over to ICE for deportation.

The bill says there will be a "presumption" subject to parole-board discretion that such offenders will be turned over to ICE for deportation.

[The state prison staff] is determining how many inmates fall under the parameters of the bill and will present their names to the parole board. If ICE does not deport the inmates, the board could rescind the parole.

Other states feel the pain of incarcerating illegals as well. Texas recently passed a bill that would make being an illegal alien in Texas a parole violation, the penalty for which would be reimprisonment. The bill says a condition of parole for an illegal alien is being turned over to the ICE. And even if ICE doesn't order him deported or deport him, he must leave the United States "as soon as possible after release" and "not unlawfully return."

Otherwise, he goes back to jail.

According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, illegal alien criminals cost the the federal and state governments nearly $17 billion annually. They cost the federal government some $7.8 billion annually, and between police, court and state prison expenditures they cost the state $8.7 billion.

Federal Help

Another concern of state officials across the country is that ICE routinely frees dangerous criminals it cannot deport. Thanks to a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, ICE may not imprison an illegal for more than six months simply because it cannot deport them. In many cases, ICE cannot deport criminal aliens because their home countries refuse to take them back. If Congress passes the Safe Communities Act, sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, that would change. ICE would be permitted to hold immigrants as long as necessary.

Smith recently released data showing that ICE has released 8,000 criminal aliens since 2009. Aside from not deporting nearly 134,000 illegals — some criminal, some not — between 2001 and 2004, ICE also dropped the ball on criminal aliens as well, The New American reported last week.

Between 2001 and 2004, ICE reported, it released 27,947 criminals aliens, adding that 20,967 (75 percent) of these criminal aliens originated from countries where the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang members are known to be active. MS-13 is the brutally violent gang from El Salvador. Between 2001 and 2005, ICE released 45,008 illegals from countries somehow involved with terrorism either by sponsoring terrorism or supporting the terrorists.

Thus, Smith would rewrite federal law to accommodate the reality that some countries will not permit the repatriation of their citizens, or that some aliens simply disappear after released from jail. Smith's bill permits the government to detain dangerous alien criminals indefinitely: “an alien may be detained ... without limitation, until the alien is subject to an final order of removal.â€