Vol. 128, No. 122 Thursday, April 18, 2019
OPINION
SPORTS
ARTS & CULTURE
Facts exist to support any argument
Two track athletes named MW athlete of the week
Tri Delta Sorority fundraises for St Jude’s Research Hospital
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The Larimer County Jail has plans in place to expand its facility to accommodate the increasing population of Larimer County. It is expecting to add an additional 400 to 500 beds to the jail’s current 500 beds, ensuring inmate separation is adequate for all genders, ages and behaviors inside the jail. “The proposed expansion of the jail is to meet the needs of today’s populations,” Captain Palmer, facility administrator for the Larimer County jail said. The Larimer County jail has been run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for 35 years and it is wearing out, he said. PHOTO BY COLIN SHEPHERD COLLEGIAN
Proposed Larimer County Jail expansion causes community backlash By Corbin Reiter @CorbinReiter
The Larimer County Board of Commissioners has proposed an expansion of the County Jail, and the community response is drastically mixed. In the past year, there was an average of 545 people within the Larimer County jail per day, said Sidna Rachid, an advocate for the issue, during an event held on the Colorado State University cam-
pus. Currently, the jail can hold a maximum capacity of 617 inmates, according to the Larimer County website. The proposed expansion would increase the size of the jail to 822 beds. On March 28, the Division of Student Affairs Education Committee and the CSU chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America hosted a presentation by Rachid who discussed the proposed expansion of Larimer County Jail. The jail was built in 1983 and
remains largely unchanged. The most recent renovation was done in 2014, but the fixtures are mostly originals from when the jail was built, said Jim Ramirez, a sheriff lieutenant. The proposed expansion of the jail is to meet the needs of today’s populations, Administrator for the Larimer County Jail Captain Timothy Palmer said. The Larimer County Jail has run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for 35 years, and it is wearing out, Palmer said.
The Board of County Commissioners is funding the proposed expansion through a certificate of proposal, which would allow for the bill to be passed without votes from the people living in Larimer County. The Board’s vote on this proposal is scheduled to occur in fall 2019. “(The COP) is a debt instrument that does not require prior voter approval before issuance,” Rachid said. “It is one way that the county commissioners can expand the jail without going to the citizens
of the county.” Since 2014, there has been an increase in the overall jail population, according to the Larimer County website. From January 2014 to January 2019, the average jail population increased by 132 people, with a peak of 623 in July 2017. “Nobody likes a bigger jail,” Palmer said. “But no one likes paltry conditions either.”
see JAIL on page 4 >>