Colorado prison death investigation raises transparency and safety concerns
Nine days after a deadly incident at Bent County Correctional Facility, state officials still had not explained how two inmates died and one was injured.
Families of incarcerated people, prison staff and county officials still do not have a full account of what happened inside Bent County Correctional Facility, where two men died and a third was injured in an incident that began on the evening of June 6. The privately run prison in Las Animas County, about 85 miles east of Pueblo, has remained under secure lockdown while questions grow over how much the state is willing to say, and how quickly, after a prison death investigation.
Colorado Department of Corrections officials have confirmed that no correctional staff members were injured and that there was no threat to the surrounding community. Even so, the disruption spread beyond the prison walls. Statewide visitation was suspended on June 7 out of caution, then later resumed at all Colorado prisons except Bent County Correctional Facility. Phone service for incarcerated people at Bent County was restored the evening of June 7, but the facility itself stayed locked down. Las Animas County sheriff’s deputies secured the perimeter after prison administrators reported an inmate count discrepancy.
The investigation is being led by the CDOC Office of the Inspector General, with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation handling crime-scene processing and evidence collection. Once the inquiry is complete, the file is expected to go to the 16th Judicial District Attorney’s Office for possible charging decisions. That sequence has done little to satisfy local concerns, in part because state officials have not yet explained the circumstances that led to the deaths or why the prison remained the only Colorado facility still closed to visits.
Bent County Coroner Jason Nichols identified the men who died as Charles Gates, 27, and Michael Fisher, 59. Gates was serving a 9-year sentence tied to convictions in Adams and Douglas counties, including aggravated motor vehicle theft, burglary and fentanyl distribution, manufacture and sale. Fisher was serving life without parole plus an additional 10 years for first-degree murder, aggravated robbery and conspiracy. A third incarcerated person was injured and taken to an outside medical facility.
The silence has now become its own public issue in Las Animas County, where the prison is a major institution and a source of jobs and local oversight concerns. State Sen. Kyle Mullica has said families, the public and legislators still lack a clear explanation, and he has questioned whether CDOC standards are the same at private prisons as at state-run facilities. Until officials explain how the June 6 incident unfolded, the pressure on Colorado’s prison system will remain tied not just to the deaths inside Bent County, but to the information still being withheld outside its walls.
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