Hudson Correctional Facility Opens in Colorado GREELEY, CO (KUNC) - Earlier this week federal officials toured an Illinois prison as a possible site to house Guantanamo Bay detainees. So far Colorado has not been contacted by the federal government for the project. But a recent medium-security private prison opening in Hudson yesterday could provide a glimpse of what could be gained by such a project.

The new Hudson Correctional Facility is a welcome economic boost for the town's 1,600 residents.

"The answer was pretty loud and clear," says Hudson Town Administrator Joe Racine, who says voters overwhelmingly approved zoning for the prison in 2007. "It passed 2:1."

Right now Hudson is a sleepy commuter town just off I-76, east of Fort Lupton. But officials like Racine expect this to change because of the $90 million dollar correctional facility.

"The biggest single tax revenue item from the prison will be property tax and that exact amount won't be known until we get the assessor's evaluation on the facility," says Racine.

Houston-based Cornell Companies Inc. brought in millions of dollars to fund a new wastewater treatment facility. They also paved several roads around the prison, opening the door for new development.

"It's a significant injection into southern Weld County into an area that hasn't seen a lot of growth," say Charles Seigel, spokesman for Cornell.

Seigel estimates the 1,250-bed prison will pump more than $7 million in salaries to the area annually. But national studies have shown that workers choose to commute to work when prisons are located in rural communities, which could reduce the economic impact on Hudson. Joe Racine says there will be a pay off for his town, though.

"The I-76 corridor like the I-25 corridor before us will see significant growth," he says. "We've already seen significant growth just down the road in Brighton."

That growth will first come in the form of prisoners, and they won't be from Colorado. Department of Corrections officials cite Governor Ritter's recidivism package and the economy for a slow down in the prison population. Cornell says the first 800 inmates to arrive in Hudson will come from Alaska. More are likely from around the country in the years ahead.
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