The Denver Newspaper Agency, which handles the business operations for the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post, is building a new facility at Colfax and Broadway, which will be open by Labor Day 2006. The city already owns the News' building. Hickenlooper, recently rated by TIME magazine as one of the nation's top five mayors, has been heavily campaigning for the center. At every speech, on any topic, he asks for support for the center, citing overcrowded prison conditions, which he says are inhumane and unsafe. He notes that a federal judge may eventually require the city to build a new jail to relieve overcrowding.

The center would be built in the up-and-coming Golden Triangleneighborhood. And unlike during the previous Mayor Wellington Webbadministration, when a jail proposal failed at the ballot box, this one has the support of the main Golden Triangle neighborhood group. A smaller splinter group has formed to oppose the jail, saying the city could be better served by implementing more non-jail sentences to solve the overcrowding. Others also say it is too costly, although Hickenlooper points out it will raise no new taxes. Instead, an existing tax, set to expire, will continue.

On Friday, Tamara Door, the president and CEO of the Downtown DenverPartnership, announced the support of her group for the justice center, which is called Ballot Measure 1A. The non-profit partnership represents the business interests of downtown property owners and merchants.

"Ballot measure 1A is important because the outcome determines what kind of a city Denver wants to be," says Door. "Do we want Denver to be a world class city that is humane and safe? Or, will we continue along the path of placing inmates, deputies, judges and court officials in harm's way?" She notes that Denver has not build a new courtroom in 70 years. Theovercrowding of the current jail and the courtrooms, already in the Golden Triangle in the City and County Building, is not a pretty picture, she says.

"Inside the City and County building are cramped courtrooms," Door says. "Crime victims, perpetrators, court officials and citizens are walking the same halls. Shackled inmates walk the same halls that city council members and everyday citizens use to conduct city business. The opportunity for a horrific event to happen in those halls compromises the safety of not only Denver citizens, but also the judges, court clerks and employees and deputies who must work in these buildings every day." She sums up the Justice Center proposal by saying it is "the right time, the right location, the right project."