Boulder County officials are finalizing several long-awaited construction projects at the county jail, including a new 60-bed jail module aimed at alleviating chronic overcrowding and an “alternative sentencing facility” for people sentenced to work release or community corrections. Funded by a 2018 voter-approved sales tax, the projects seek to create safer conditions and provide a cost-effective alternative to jailing people charged with low-level crimes.
However, as these facilities near completion, the county faces a new challenge: finding the funds to open and operate them.
The sales tax that funded the construction of the new facilities has expired, and in 2023, voters reauthorized the tax to pay for affordable housing instead. Now, Boulder County commissioners are searching for money to open the new facilities, while the county grapples with a budget deficit and potential cuts to other essential services. To staff the facilities, commissioners may need to dip into budget reserves and make tough tradeoffs, as they consider the proposed budget for 2025, with discussions already underway.
This financial bind will force commissioners to balance past jail-related commitments to voters with the need to fund other county services, such as deferred maintenance in its affordable housing program, which is necessary to ensure safe living conditions.
Meanwhile, the costs to staff the expanded jail and new facility are significant.
Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson has requested $5.4 million to hire deputies, nurses and other staff to operate the additional space in the jail. Overcrowding has become so severe that some people have been forced to sleep on the gym floor, while others are confined to their cells for over 22 hours a day. Originally designed to hold 287 people when it opened in 1988, the jail has recently housed more than 450 people, according to county officials.
“I think the commissioners understand the challenges that we face everyday at the jail with space, the age of the jail and the challenges of complying with legislation,” Johnson told Boulder Reporting Lab. “I’m fairly optimistic that they will provide staffing so that we can open this space.”
Separately, the price tag to open the 252-bed alternative sentencing facility is roughly $8 million, according to a county official. The facility would be staffed by non-police personnel, including case managers, and is intended to replace the county’s reliance on privately run halfway houses. Some operational costs would be offset by bringing these services in-house.
But the county has broader goals for the alternative sentencing facility, including providing mental health and substance use services aimed at reducing the odds of someone returning to jail after their release. Officials are also considering using the facility for people who are detained prior to their court dates, potentially allowing them out during the day so they can go to work. People detained pretrial account for about 86% of the jail population, an unusually high percentage, according to officials.
“There are competing efforts here and a lot of hard decisions for the county commissioners to make,” Monica Rotner, division manager for Boulder County Community Justice Services and who oversees the alternative sentencing facility, told Boulder Reporting Lab. “I’ll work with what I have to provide the best outcomes and the best services to the community.”
The funding challenge arose after the 2018 sales tax expired in 2023. County commissioners referred a measure to the ballot to reauthorize the tax and use the money for affordable housing. Voters approved the measure with 71% support.
Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann, who supported repurposing the tax, said the county’s budget reserves can cover the alternative sentencing facility’s first year, with state and federal funding expected to support its long-term costs.
“I have no doubt that we will be able to successfully open the facility,” Stolzmann told Boulder Reporting Lab.
She added that the housing crisis that spurred the repurposed tax and jail population are interconnected, as research has found stable housing decreases the odds of someone ending up in jail.
However, Stolzmann said the sheriff’s request for funding the additional space in the jail is more complicated. She said county commissions could authorize hiring the positions but not fund them as part of the 2025 budget. The sheriff would then have to request an amendment to the budget mid-year if he was able to hire the deputies.
County officials have not yet released a proposed budget for 2025. They are scheduled to present a recommended budget to county commissioners at a public meeting on Oct. 8. The county’s 2024 budget topped $653 million.
Boulder County can’t open the new jail and has a budget deficit but can afford to spend 165 million on a bike path to Longmont down the middle of the diagonal??? There is an existing bike trail called Lobo trail. Isn’t that a path to Longmont. Why not just improve that?
Why not put a trail on the feeder canal? Or not do trails until we can resolve our housing crisis and resultant jail overload?
The sheriff to say that recently the jail has been over crowded is putting it mildly but it’s been overcrowded almost since day one.
If the police and sheriff’s would stop locking people up for what is almost always a misdemeanor to collect money from them it wouldn’t be over crowded in first place
Boulder is doing a great job. Kudos. I recently went to an affordable housing meeting and was impressed with how they are addressing the problem. Also, flood mitigation is incredibly expensive and being seriously and strongly addressed. They can’t do everything at once. Chill people. The level of entitlement in the air is surprising.
Where is it located?
They already having facilities who run these programs. They don’t need to “look” for funding. Boulder County just wants to control everything. Including all surrounding area. Stop buying EVERY INCH in Boulder County and continue focusing on the real issues and let the professionals run the building. Put our money in the affordable housing, fire mitigation, flood mitigation. Not this new building, or a new bike path when we already have one! We are running out of money.
What percentage in the county jail are awaiting competency hearings? Is that part of the pretrial detention statistic of 86%? Those with serious mental health issues can linger in county jail for a couple of years especially if they aren’t found competent to stand trial, and there aren’t enough mental health facilities in the state to take them.