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Foreigners Now Top Colorado Prison Population

DENVER (AP) - Foreign inmates are now the fastest-growing segment of Colorado's prison population.

Since 2005, the number of Colorado's foreign-born inmates has increased 51 percent to 1,953.

Director of state prisons Tom Clements says those with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers have more than doubled in 10 years from 680 to 1,500.

Clements says managing inmates who don't speak English requires interpreters. He says it is more costly and adds to the difficulty of running prisons. That includes prisoners from Mongolia, Iraq, and 75 other nations.

Clements told the Denver Post that while the cost for holding such inmates continues to rise, financial support that Colorado receives from the federal government is decreasing.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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