Walsenburg’s Public Resources should be for the people of Walsenburg. A local detention center would place additional demands on water, emergency services, and other public resources while creating uncertain economic benefits for our community.
Strain on Essential Services
Water Usage: Walsenburg already deals with issues due to its century old water infrastructure and drought conditions that the whole state is dealing with. A detention center would add additional strain that Walsenburg simply can’t handle
- In March of 2026, the city lost water pressure, causing residents to deal with a week of little to no water. Resulted in a disaster declaration, school closures and a boil water advisory
- Walsenburg is currently in stage three water conservation measures since Friday, August 27th 2026
- Prisoners use significantly more water than the average person. The average person uses between 80–100 gallons of water per day, while prisoners use 120–149 gallons per day
Social Services: A detention center in a rural town increases burden to local social services that are already underfunded
- Over 60 emergency calls made from ten ICE facilities first half of 2025
- Rural emergency services across the country face a demand they can’t readily meet at times as ICE scales up its detention capacity
Community Impacts
Public Health Concerns: Detention facilities can create additional public-health concerns that can affect the nearby community.
- Overcrowding
- Unsanitary conditions
- Food-safety concerns
- Disease outbreaks in town
- Additional demands on emergency and social services
Unguaranted Economic Benefits with Guaranteed Costs to the Community: Research on rural prison communities found that, compared with non-prison towns, communities with prisons had lower growth in several economic indicators, including:
- New businesses
- Non-agricultural employment
- Average household wages
- Retail sales
- Median owner-occupied home values
- New housing units
- Towns with prisons have lower retail sales, lower wages, and slower housing growth
The research concludes that the presence of a prison does not necessarily increase per-capita income and may decrease it.
What about Jobs?
Research shows that corrections/detention officers experience elevated levels of occupational stress:
- 31% report serious psychological stress — approximately twice the rate of the general population.
- 27% experience PTSD symptoms.
- Suicide rates among corrections officers are reported as 39% higher than among the general working-age population.
Local Control Matters! Walsenburg should decide how its public resources are used. Are we going to let the federal government take your local resources for the imprisonment of humans?
Vote YES on 2A by November 3, 2026.