Skyline Correctional Center is a facility designed to rehabilitate inmates near the end of their sentences. The “Beacon” program could be closed indefinitely after the Colorado Department of Corrections proposed moving the program to another facility.
DOC is planning to move the program to Centennial Correctional Facility, which is a level five or maximum security prison. Skyline is currently only a level-one security prison.
Former Skyline inmates say the program is a game-changer and that it can’t survive at Centennial.
“The program, it could exist at name at another facility, but it would not be what it’s ever intended to be,” said Trevor Jones, a former Skyline inmate.
The Beacon is a pilot program, Jones says it allows residents to gain skills to reintegrate into society after they’ve proven themselves in higher-level correctional facilities. Jones says the biggest challenge the move would face is adapting a program meant for lower security prisons to the culture of a maximum security facility like Centennial.