The Downtown Division Pre-Arraignment Detention Facility (PADF) is the prisoner intake center.  Prisoners are processed into the system, booked, finger printed, and temporarily housed until such a time that they are able to make bond, or have been given an advisement by the court. 

 

Depending on the outcome of their court appearance, prisoners are either released from the PADF or sent to the County Jail Facility to await trial or serve out their sentence. The Sheriff Department also maintains a Correctional Care Medical Facility (CCMF) at Denver Health Medical Center.   

 

Division Chief Marie Kielar is in charge of the Downtown Division which also includes:  Court Services and the Civil Unit in addition to the Pre-Arraignment Detention Facility and the Correctional Care Medical Facility.  The facility opened in 1978 and was originally designed to process 12,000 prisoners per year. Currently, the PADF is processing in excess of 48,000 prisoners per year.

 

Upon arriving at the Pre-Arraignment Detention Facility prisoners are searched and have a digital mugshot and right index fingerprint taken.  At the booking desk each prisoner's property is inventoried and a thorough pat search (and metal detector search) of each prisoner is performed.  Fingerprint cards are sent to the CBI electronically. A check for any additional warrants is made when the fingerprints are classed and searched by the Denver Police Department Identification Bureau. 

The photographs shown below are the housing areas of the PADF. From left to right, the corridor (hallway), a typical housing cluster (pod), and a typical cell. Each cell is usually occupied by two prisoners, making a total of 36 to 40 prisoners for each cluster. Meals, phone calls and showers are done in the housing cluster.