Word from the Warden, "They're number one!"

(Las Animas, CO) -- Like a proud dad bragging on his brood, Bent County Core civic Warden Virgil Ensey sat down to do that to county commissioners this week.

He was especially happy that his inmates achieved the status of being number one in the state for most completed GED programs.

"I'm competitive" "we've overtaken the state, so we've completed 18 GEDS ourselves at our facility, and we're four ahead of any other state facility private facility, we're ahead of everybody." Ensey beams.

Ensey says there are challenges, like covid. He adds they had to return to wearing masks. He says it's a necessary evil to be compliant.

There are eight people in the facility's temporary housing right now. You might remember that the company built a facility with rooms to allow employees moving to Bent county to have a place to live while looking for a more permeant place.

Core Civic in Bent County is improving staffing numbers. Ensey reports they're only down 75 positions right now and that's a marked improvement. There are 12 recruits in class, 23 in the next training class and they have accepted 40 applications for future positions.

Since lowering the age for corrections officers, they now have their first younger officer, The 19-year old female is from Lamar and Ensey says she's doing well.

The inmate population is around 1,150 right now. There's a total capacity of 1,388 and once there are more staff in place, the facility will be able to accept more from the state, which has about 1,400 on back log.

Other things happening at the private prison include some major improvements to the kitchen. In the meantime, Ensey says they're using some mobile kitchens which are a lot like food trucks on steroids.

We are hoping to bring you more from Core Civic in the future, we'll be able to reveal that soon.

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