Florence

Four Colorado projects that convert wood waste, or biomass, into energy received a total of $1 million in federal stimulus funds Thursday, but a state with more than two million acres of dead and dying lodgepole pine forests could use a lot more.

Erin Rosa at her fab new immigration blog, Gabacha.com, makes a very prescient point riding under the radar in the political pundit gabbing about transferring Guantanámo detainees to federal Supermax prisons.

While the guards are up to the task and are confident in their abilities to get the job done, there also needs to be additional funding to the facility in order the guarantee the safety of not only the workers, but also the inmates that would be transferred there.

Deadly assaults in federal penitentiaries are on the rise and they aren’t exclusive to Colorado. Following reports that an inmate was stabbed to death in August at the U.S. Penitentiary in the southern city of Florence, there is news from another federal lockup that a guard was assaulted and stabbed multiple times this month, lending credence to correctional workers’ claims that the entire system is an understaffed tinderbox.

Colorado Confidential’s own Erin Rosa was tapped with a rare honorable mention award by the Newspaper Guild-CWA’s David S. Barr Award — only the second such honor conferred in its nine-year history.

Less than a month before a riot at a federal penitentiary in Florence over the weekend left two inmates dead, an official with the labor union representing the prison’s correctional workers testified before the U.S. House Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee regarding safety concerns over a national rise in inmate-on-inmate assaults and the possibility of [...]

At least two inmates have died as a result of a massive riot that occurred Sunday at a federal government penitentiary in Florence. The violent incident was inevitable according to staff connected to the facility.

UPDATE 3: The Bureau of Prisons has denied that a third inmate was killed in the riot, and says two inmates remaining in the hospital are not in critical condition. 9:58 a.m.

UPDATE 2: Sources now say that a third inmate has died from wounds inflicted by other inmates during the riot. The Bureau of Prisons [...]

The nation’s only nonprofit founded to address mental health issues involving correctional workers will hold a two-day conference in Colorado over the summer to discuss how workplace stress affects the lives of prison guards in state and federal lockups.

The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is refusing to clean up sewage contamination at one of its most notorious prisons, documents show. New information has surfaced regarding worker allegations of environmental contamination at the Supermax prison in Florence that may be exposing inmates and correctional officers to health risks.

Members of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a union that represents approximately 28,000 correctional workers, will be traveling to Washington, D.C., in February to discuss a variety of issues with congressional representatives.