Being convicted of breaking Colorado law doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be serving time in the state. Inmates now serving time in Oklahoma are suing their prison warden for the right to be incarcerated in Colorado.An article that appeared in The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel on Sunday reports that nearly 380 inmates have united in a lawsuit against North Fork Correctional Facility Warden Fred Figueroa, head of the Oklahoma lockup run by private prison firm Corrections Corporation of America.
At the beginning of 2007, the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) suddenly transferred approximately 480 inmates to the privately run prison in Oklahoma. Since then, families of the inmates have sharply criticized the move, raising concerns over inmate isolation from loved ones.
Now state inmates are taking their cases to court, operating under the logic that convicts have a right to be incarcerated in the jurisdiction where they committed the crimes. The case will be heard in the Oklahoma court system.
DOC Director Ari Zavaras will be joining state legislators in a visit to the facility tomorrow.
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