by James Bowie

Denver’s new downtown $295 million Justice Center will be opening on April 24, on time and on budget, according to Denver officials. It features an impressive, if somewhat corporate, partial glass curtain façade and is equipped with the latest in technology. The Justice Center will house the Denver City and County’s criminal courts and jail. No longer will shackled prisoners in orange jailhouse jumpsuits be escorted through the halls of the City and County Building. From now on dispensing criminal justice will be a one-stop shopping affair in Denver on the two blocks of 14th Street that once housed the Rocky Mountain News.

The Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle staff went on a guided tour of the new facility with a contingent from the Denver Sheriff Department. The Sheriff’s Department in Denver is responsible for all law enforcement in the new facility, and hearing comments from the Sheriff’s Deputies, who will man the jail, was enlightening as to how the facility would be run.

The Pride Of Denver

The completion of the new Justice Center is a matter of a certain amount of civic pride with the voters in 2005 approving by a large margin the bonds to pay for the facility that was strongly campaigned for by Mayor John Hickenlooper. While there is much to be admired in the new facility, a tour produces feelings something akin to reading Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s 14th century epic work Divine Comedy, where the poet is led through Paradise, Purgatory and Hell (which is Inferno in Italian) by the Roman poet Virgil. The most striking portion of the poem is the cantos that describe the nine rings of the Inferno. The Divine Comedy is at its core a description from an enlightened medieval mind of a divine Justice Center.

Playing the role of Virgil for our tour was Denver Sheriff Sergeant Paul Ortega of the Justice Center Transition Team. Once the Center is opened for business a tour similar to the one we took will be almost impossible due to the high security and segmented nature of the facility.

In our earthly Justice Center the firmaments of heaven are occupied not by celestial beings, but by black-robed judges. Their home contains 29 courtrooms and 150,000 square feet of space. The judges have spacious but not ornate offices on the highest floor with views of the snowcapped Rockies. The staircase to heaven in the new Justice Center is an elaborate circular one that is the most impressive architectural element in the building.

The courtrooms are the Justice Center’s Purgatory where the accused must face the state’s accusations of earthly transgressions and will either be freed or be sent down into an Inferno to pay one’s debts to society. The new courtrooms have a very utilitarian feel. The concept that courtrooms should be impressive to highlight the majesty of justice apparently has long been discarded. The sparse and non-elaborate benches have an assembly line feeling perhaps to emphasize the concept of an “efficient and cost-effective administration of justice.” Nonetheless the courtrooms have a somewhat dismal feel to them.

The jail portion of the Justice Center occupies an adjoining building encompassing 488,000 square feet. It is called a “pre-sentencing” facility. After arrest and arraignment at the facility, those who cannot bail out remain at the Center until the completion of their trial and sentencing. According to the Sheriff’s Deputies people accused in murder cases may spend up to two years in the facility. Once sentenced, a defendant will be sent into the state correctional system.

Guilty ’Til Found Innocent

Of course the phrase pre-sentencing facility indicates an administrative assumption that the person arrested is in fact guilty of an offense he will be found guilty of either in a trial or through a plea bargain. The attitude is shared by many of the judges typified by Colorado District Judge Morris B. Hoffman who penned an article published in The Wall Street Journal called “The Innocence Myth” to counter the fact that the 200th person wrongfully convicted in the United States had been freed because of DNA evidence. In the article he calculated the wrongful conviction rate was 0.00065. Few representing wrongfully accused suspects would concur. So if you are arrested and are innocent you may be surprised by the fact that while under the law you are supposed to be “presumed innocent until proven guilty,” the system will treat you just the opposite.

Welcome To The City Jail

There are few places as depressing in Colorado as a city jail. There are the dregs of society including pimps and prostitutes, robbers and thieves, as well as murderers and pedophiles. Increasingly, however, average citizens are finding themselves part of the criminal system. This is in part due to the drastic lowering of criminal DUI intoxication levels as well as the draconian Colorado domestic violence law which requires that the police arrest someone in a domestic call regardless of whether there is any evidence that a crime has been committed.

In Dante’s Inferno there are nine rings of hell, but to house the diverse population of the accused in the Denver Justice Center there are but four rings which are separated into “pods” with the total facility able to hold up 1,500 inmates. To prevent escapes and harm to the Denver administrative staff each pod houses between 30 and 80 inmates and there are control units on every floor with cameras everywhere. There is zero privacy in this Inferno.

The latest in biometrics is used. There are no keys. To get in many of the doors your fingerprint must match what has been entered into the computer for your card. Many of the doors in hallways are “sally ports” so that one door is always locked while you enter another door. Each floor has a command center and there is a facility-wide command center for the entire Inferno. No pictures of these command centers were permitted.

The Rings Of

The Justice Center Inferno

The first ring of the Justice Center Inferno has open bunks and no jail cells. It has more light than the lower rings. The tables and chairs are moveable and it has communal digital televisions. There is no going outside to breathe fresh air. The only aerobic exercise available for the accused is a small wedge of a glass enclosed basketball court with one basket. The guards will have an extensive weight room while the only available exercise equipment available to the accused is a bar across a doorway. In this earthly hell social isolation is a major punishment. In the first ring (or pod) the accused is free to mingle with others at any time of the day. The first ring is for those who are considered a minimal risk to themselves and others and highly unlikely to provoke violence or trouble.

In the second ring there are large cells that house up to 12 inmates each. The accused are locked at night. The televisions are smaller and there are fewer of them. The tables and chairs are permanently attached to the floor. The wedge of a basketball court is smaller and natural light is less. These pods may house “trustees” who are inmates that are willing to work at the facility doing tasks such washing floors and are viewed as trustworthy by the Sheriff’s Deputies.

In the third ring all the accused are in individual cells which may be opened up at different times of day. While some of those housed in the high rings may go to see visitors in person through glass panels, those in the lower rings may be only able to see friends and family vis-a-vis video hook ups. Each floor has a video conference room for this purpose. The basketball wedge has little room other than to shoot at a basket. The third ring is for those who have extensive criminal records or have behaved badly while at the Justice Center or are otherwise considered dangerous.

In Dante’s Inferno those who committed suicide were housed in the second level of the seventh ring of the Inferno. In the Justice Center’s Inferno, those who attempt to commit suicide occupy the lowest ring of all. This is not a moral or religious judgment, but individuals who attempt suicide at the Justice Center are deemed the greatest risk to themselves, other inmates and the guards. They are locked in isolated cells. They are made to defecate and urinate through a barred hole at the center of the cell, which gets no natural light. They sleep on a concrete slab with no bedding.

At the very bottom of the Justice Center is Hell’s Kitchen. As a practical matter most of the food is cooked off-site and shipped in but the final preparation is done here. In the dining area all utensils are chained to the tables. One of the touring Sheriff’s Deputies asked where the guard station would be and the surprise answer was that due to budget concerns such a station had been eliminated. All the deputies shook their heads in concern. One stated, “As sure as that the sun sets in the West, inmates will fight given the opportunity. This could become one damn bloody area.”

Leaving The Inferno

Emerging from the Justice Center into the light of day was a relief. It was difficult to feel proud of such a necessary monstrosity of human justice. One also got an understanding of how difficult a job the Denver Sheriff’s Deputies have. Any one inmate at anytime could become violent and vigilance is necessary at all times. As one deputy stated, “It’s often the ones you least expect or have gotten to know the best. The awful inhumanity of this place will drive some crazy and you never know when it is going to happen.”

The Justice Center will open in mid-April. There is to be a “sleepover” on April 9 and 10 for city employees and interested members of the public.