Colorado shortchanged incarcerating foreign-born inmates
January 12, 2010 7:27 PM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DENVER — The Colorado Department of Corrections estimates the state spent almost $58 million incarcerating foreign-born inmates in fiscal 2008 and received about $3.3 million in federal reimbursement for those costs.
The statistics for the year ending June 30, 2008, didn’t note the immigration status of the inmates.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers included the statistics in a letter to Colorado’s congressional delegation Tuesday and asked them to increase efforts to help Colorado pay for enforcement of federal immigration laws.
A statute passed by state legislators directs Suthers to try to recover costs Colorado incurs from illegal immigration.
