At a crowded and impassioned Monday night meeting at the county fairgrounds, a stream of Boulder residents expressed an array of concerns about, and limited support for, a possible new women’s prison in Boulder.
“I moved back to Boulder with my now 10-month old son because I think this is a great place to raise a child,” said Brady Smith, an attorney and former public defender in Helena, Salt Lake City and New Orleans. “Letting this prison come here will change the community in ways that we can’t even anticipate. I don’t want to change Boulder. I want to keep it the way it is.”
For Stacie DeMers Klemo, whose 1- and 3-year-old grandsons are 8th-generation Boulder residents, a new Department of Corrections facility raised the issue of town identity. A registered nurse with correctional experience, she knew firsthand how prisons shape a community.
