The Colorado Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee reversed course on its denial of more funding for prison beds. He said the state will spend the requested money regardless, because if it doesn’t go to state prisons for more beds, it will go to county jails that are holding the people awaiting transfer. The backlog of people in county jails awaiting transfer reached just under 700 as of January 20, and without more prison beds that number could surpass 1,000 by June, Ferrandino said. In 2010, Colorado had 23,000 people in its state prison system, which represented about 0.45% of the state’s population, according to Ferrandino. People convicted of nonviolent crimes make up 38.6% of the population in state prisons.