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Colorado has an incarceration rate of 614 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities), meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than almost any democracy on earth. Read on to learn more about who is incarcerated in Colorado and why.

31,000 people from Colorado are behind bars

Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Colorado is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 87,000 different people are booked into local jails in Colorado.

Using 2020 census data, we looked at where people in Colorado prisons come from. We found most people in prison come from the state's largest cities, but many of its smallest communities are disproportionately harmed, too.

Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years

Also see these Colorado graphs:

• total numbers rather than rates.
• Women’s prisons: Incarceration Rates | Total Population
• Men’s prisons: Incarceration Rates | Total Population

Today, Colorado’s incarceration rates stand out internationally

In the U.S., incarceration extends beyond prisons and local jails to include other systems of confinement. The U.S. and state incarceration rates in this graph include people held by these other parts of the justice system, so they may be slightly higher than the commonly reported incarceration rates that only include prisons and jails. Details on the data are available in States of Incarceration: The Global Context. We also have a version of this graph focusing on the incarceration of women.

People of color are overrepresented in prisons and jails

Colorado's criminal justice system is more than just its prisons and jails

The high cost of being incarcerated in Colorado

Prisons and jails in Colorado are increasingly shifting the cost of incarceration to people behind bars and their families, hiding the true economic costs of mass incarceration:

• Jails in Colorado charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge $1.20 for a 15-minute call.
• Colorado prisons suspended their $3 medical copay at the beginning of the pandemic. They should eliminate this fee completely.
• Colorado prisons charge families up to a 19% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
• People in Colorado prisons must pay for hygiene items and other basics — and those without cash have to meet strict "indigence" criteria to get financial assistance
• People in Colorado prisons earn as little as 13¢ an hour for their work.
• The Wireless Prison: How Colorado’s tablet computer program misses opportunities and monetizes the poor
• Colorado charges up to 36¢ for an e-message to or from prison; well above the national average.

Our other articles about Colorado

• Colorado allows parole officers to restrict whom their clients can be around — even loved ones who are trying to help them
• The parole board in Colorado is releasing 39% fewer people and holding 37% fewer hearings since the pandemic started
• “Housing First” programs, like Denver Social Impact Bond, have been shown to reduce the likelihood of future criminal justice system involvement for participants. More places should adopt this type of housing program.
• Colorado's choice to criminalize "failure to appear" may be hurting public safety
• The cost of incarcerating older people is incredibly high, and their risk of reincarceration is incredibly low, yet 13% of people in Colorado prisons are over the age of 55. Why is the state keeping so many older people locked up?
• Data from Jefferson County, CO and other jurisdictions shows: Releasing people pretrial doesn't harm public safety
• Colorado makes it difficult or even risky for incarcerated journalists to tell their stories.
• Some Colorado prisons are replacing incarcerated people's personal mail with scans, stifling family contact
• Denver County has two jail-based polling locations — Denver County Jail and Van Cise-Simonet Detention Center — that enable people detained in the facilities to cast ballots in elections
• Bail companies in Colorado have a track record of avoiding accountability, our report All Profit, No Risk and review of state-by-state evidence show
• Colorado prisons release about 9,840 people every year
• Report: Where people in prison come from: The geography of mass incarceration in Colorado
• In Colorado, two private prisons reported staff turnover rates of over 100% in 2021
• New data: Low incomes — but high fees — for people on probation in Colorado
• We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Colorado gets an F
• Who's helping the 45,382 women released from Colorado correctional facilities each year?
• PPI helps overturn a harmful banishment ordinance in Colorado

Data on COVID-19 in Colorado jails and prisons

We gave Colorado a failing grade in September 2021 for its response to the coronavirus in prisons, noting that:

• Colorado is one of 13 states that did not explicitly mention incarcerated people in their vaccination rollout plan.
• Colorado failed to utilize one of the most obvious, and easiest, tools for reducing the prison population — stopping prison admissions for technical violations of probation and parole (which are not crimes).

For more detail, see our report States of Emergency. Or check out these other resources:

• How many COVID-19 cases in Colorado communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)

Other resources

• Research on Colorado in our Research Library