About

Colorado Correctional Industries (CCI) is a division of the Colorado Department of Corrections, created by the Colorado Legislature in 1976, with the purpose of creating profitable industries inside prison facilities to provide work opportunities for inmates while they are incarcerated.  CCI would be self-sustaining from the revenue generated by sales of prison manufactured goods and services.  CCI's incarcerated workers would learn critical job skills and work ethic. In theory and practice, this resulted in less cost to the general fund by removing part of the prison population from general funded supervision for part of the day. Ultimately, the acquired job skills would result in lower recidivism because former inmates would use their skills to obtain and maintain employment upon release.

The original goal of CCI was to provide work opportunities for as many incarcerated adults as possible, with a secondary goal of making a profit from operations.  Paying market wages to incarcerated workers was never a consideration until recently, and most CCI businesses would never be able to accomplish that goal.  In 2019, inspired by the vision of DOC Executive Director, Dean Williams, Take TWO was launched as a work release program where incarcerated workers would get hired by private businesses at market wages, and leave prison to go to work each day.  At the same time, Mr. Williams challenged CCI to increase wages for our workers as soon as possible and in as many areas as possible.  Wages have been increased in all of our operations, with the goal of getting all of them to minimum wage in the future.  

As of August 2022, Take TWO is on "pause" while the department reevaluates eligibility and logistical criteria.

Several years of challenging market conditions and unprecedented financial difficulties led to the decision in 2022 to reorganize Correctional Industries. This resulted in closing underperforming businesses that had no hope of recovering profitability, severely limiting our ability to increase wages or scale profitable operations.

CCI and Take TWO have overlap in their missions to increase meaningful employment opportunities during incarceration. We have common leadership, common goals and similar ways of doing business.  Currently, CCI operates primarily INSIDE the prison walls with incarcerated workers that have longer sentences and potentially more violent convictions, while Take TWO operated primarily OUTSIDE the prison walls with incarcerated workers getting close to parole or mandatory release, and had non-violent convictions.  With Take TWO on pause, the short-to-medium range focus will be creating work opportunities INSIDE the prison walls at market rate wages.

Our goal has always been to provide incarcerated people with the dignity and self-respect that comes from a job well done.  Now, we are focused on paying them enough that they continue to have the dignity that work provides, but they will also earn enough to start paying off their restitution, support their families, and save a nest egg for a smoother transition back to their communities, so they have a better chance of never coming back.

We don't know what the future holds, but we are excited for Correctional Industries, Take TWO, and we hope you'll join us in our mission to help incarcerated people rebuild their lives by purchasing any of our products or services, or by partnering with us to launch a new operation to employ more incarcerated workers.