A $9.1-million contract has been awarded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe for a much-needed adult and juvenile detention center that will be constructed by the tribe's Weeminuche Construction Authority.
"We are gratified and thankful that the tribe's critical need for this facility is finally being met," said Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover. "I thank Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) for his longstanding support for this project and also thank the chairmen of the Interior Appropriations Committees, Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA) and Rep. Ralph Regula (R-OH), for their assistance."
The new Ute Mountain Ute Adult and Juvenile Detention Center will consist of a 12-bed juvenile detention center and a 38-bed adult detention center on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation in Montezuma County, CO. Construction funds for the center are being transferred by the BIA to the tribe's construction authority through a Public Law 638 contract. Construction will be completed in approximately 18 months.
The new facility is, in part, the result of a recent Federal Court Consent Decree requiring the BIA to immediately address the operations and facility conditions of the existing detention center.
The day-to-day responsibility for providing police and detention services to the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation was transferred on January 1 from the BIA agency superintendent to the BIA's Office of Law Enforcement Services (OLES). The OLES is working closely with the U.S. Attorney, District of Colorado; the Indian Health Service; the Department of the Interior Regional Solicitor; and the Federal Court to address the current detention center's deficiencies and to provide quality detention services.
