The Jail System
Colorado has 60 jails in 64 counties. The jail population in 2022 was 13,000.
The Prison System
As of December 31, 2022, the number of prisoners under the jurisdiction of the State of Colorado correctional authorities was 17,168 located in 21 state prisons and held in custody of private prisons or local jails. Colorado operated facilities had a staff of 6,311 employees and a budget of $995,500,000.
The Community Corrections System
As of December 31, 2022, Colorado community corrections population was 72,290 under probation and 9,050 under parole.
Methodology
The National Institute of Corrections depends on publicly available information to provide the information on this page.
The statistics for budgets, employee positions, county numbers, and state prison facilities data come from state departments of corrections, other state reports and state agencies. If data is missing for a state, then we were unable to find that information.
The data on prison population come from the Prisoners in 2022 report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The report includes the count of prisoners in the unified systems of Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Violent and property crime rates are provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
The number of counties per state comes from the United States Census Bureau.
- Census of Jails, 2005–2019 – Statistical Tables
- Colorado 73rd General Assembly: State Operating Budget
- County Population Totals and Components of Change: 2020-2023
- Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer
- How much do states spend on prisoners?
- Prisoners in 2022 – Statistical Tables
- Probation and Parole in the United States, 2022
- VERA Incarceration Trends: Colorado