CHEYENNE -- Colorado's plan to save millions of dollars by releasing convicted felons from prison early has plenty of critics.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter figures the plan would save about $19 million by releasing up to 3,100 inmates from prison six months earlier than their mandatory release dates.

Supervision of some parolees, but not sex offenders, would be terminated.

But the plan also called for adding about nine new positions for intensive parole supervision.

The cost-cutting idea was part of Ritter's answer to a nearly $300 million shortfall in Colorado's budget.

Most of the eligible for release inmates are in private prisons that cost nearly $20,000 per inmate.

The plan seemed reasonable.

But don't worry. Wyoming won't be freeing any inmates ahead of time, at least in this administration.

The Colorado Parole Board had trouble finding inmates who could qualify. It rejected about 80 percent of the felons eligible for early release.

Even so the first batch of 10 inmates to be released early had records of escape, rioting and assault.

According to published reports, the list included a drunken driver convicted of vehicular homicide; a man accused three times of sex crimes, and another inmate who had been arrested 46 times for alleged crimes, including assault.

The report did not say whether the last two cases resulted in convictions, however.

Colorado Republicans were quick to voice their outrage over the actions, claiming the releases put the public at risk.

A spokesman for Ritter, a Democrat and former Denver district attorney, accused the Republican legislators of trying to make "political hay" out of the early release program.

Ritter, the spokesman said, repeatedly invited Republican legislators to share their budget balancing ideas but they failed to offer any constructive ideas.

Moreover, the cases of the first 10 felons being released early were well within the guidelines established for the program, he said. Those guidelines allowed the parole board to consider only prisoners with a release date more than 180 days in the future.

The board did not consider murderers or inmates who would pose a risk outside the prison.

The first 10 felons were due to be released from prison in an average of 70 days.

Years ago, then Gov. Ed Herschler commuted the sentences of batches of prison inmates to time served.

His reason was to relieve overcrowding at the old state penitentiary at Rawlins, an issue then before the federal courts.

The plan did not go over well. Law enforcement officers, in particular, were outraged.

The lawsuit eventually was settled. The old state penitentiary is now a museum and a tourist attraction. The new pen built at Rawlins in the 1980s had so many structural problems it no longer is used to house inmates.

It was replaced by a new prison at Rawlins. The latest addition to the state's corrections system is a new medium security prison at Torrington, due to open in January.

The new prison is one reason an early release program is unlikely to get a foothold here. Inmates now in those expensive out of state prisons will be returned to Wyoming.

Another reason is the philosophy of the state's chief executives. Herschler's three successors have not been particularly generous with commutations and pardons.

The current governor, Democrat Dave Freudenthal, the former chief federal prosecutor for Wyoming, does not like commutations.

He is less stingy with petitions for pardons or restoration of civil rights, or both, because these offenders have tracks records on the outside.

For example, so far this year Freudenthal has restored civil rights to seven people. He has pardoned and restored civil rights to five other people.

The pardons are for old cases -- a 1989 conviction for delivery of cocaine; a 1983 case for auto burglary, a 1995 conviction for delivery of marijuana and another 1995 case for forgery.

In 2008, Freudenthal also pardoned five people.

He's pretty consistent.

Contact Joan Barron by e-mail at joan.barron@trib.com or by phone at (307) 632-1244.