Like his predecessor, Gov. Jared Polis wants to reopen a shuttered prison as part of his plan to tackle Colorado’s crowded corrections system.

But instead of adding new beds, Polis wants to use the facility to replace beds currently operated through contracts with for-profit prison companies.

He also has urged lawmakers to pass bills to address the root causes of the overcrowding, and a group of lawmakers on Friday introduced a bill following some of the governor’s suggestions.

Polis’s plan states that reopening the shuttered Centennial Correctional Facility-South and swapping its functions with the Denver Reception and Diagnostic Center would add 824 beds to the state’s prison system, allowing the same number of beds to be subtracted from the private system.

The plan, however, would require the support of the state General Assembly, which has repeatedly voted against reopening the prison despite the Department of Corrections’ warnings about a system near capacity.

At the end of December, just 93 of 14,000 beds remained open in Colorado’s prison system. The department has not met the recommended 2 percent vacancy rate for general population beds in more than a year.

The state in January contracted with private prison companies for 3,928 beds, meaning nearly a quarter of all Colorado inmates were in such facilities, corrections data show.

“This plan makes progress in returning Colorado to the original intent for private prison beds — as an overflow mechanism,” Polis’ budget request states.

The governor’s plan has been met with cautious optimism by criminal justice reform groups that have long opposed reopening Centennial South, fearing it would only allow the prison population to grow without addressing the root causes of incarceration.

The movement away from private prison companies packaged with suggestions for legislative change makes the potential of reopening Centennial South more palatable, said Christie Donner, executive director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.

“We might finally have a vision for criminal justice reform,” Donner said.

Reopening the prison is still not ideal, said Denise Maes, policy director for the ACLU of Colorado. But she was hopeful that the reforms, if successful, would make the move unnecessary.

“I don’t think any of us want another prison,” she said.

However, the state will have to consider the challenges of adding outdoor yards, classrooms and space for groups in a building designed for solitary confinement, Donner said. The $208 million prison opened in 2010 for inmates in administrative segregation and closed two years later when the state stopped using the punitive practice.

Additionally, it sometimes costs more money to house an inmate within state facilities than at a private facility, she said.

“This needs to be budget neutral, not bed neutral,” she said.

Ideally, lawmakers will pass bills that address the root causes of a high prison population, Donner said. Then the state can re-evaluate how many beds it needs before deciding whether to reopen Centennial South.

Three Democratic lawmakers on Friday introduced a bill in the Senate that would allow parolees to avoid reincarceration for technical violations of their release terms. It would also make it more difficult for parole boards to deny release to many low-risk inmates.

Lawmakers last year pushed back against the Department of Corrections’ warnings about a lack of space, noting that the department’s budget has risen to nearly $1 billion even as the total prison population had declined in the last decade and remained flat in recent years.

Activists have recommended numerous legislative methods for addressing the root causes and said that the department’s population growth estimates are inflated, according to a memo from the Criminal Justice Reform Coalition and the ACLU of Colorado issued in December. The organizations opposed adding new beds to the system and instead suggested bills that addressed recidivism and parole policies.

But Polis wants to reach the 2 percent vacancy rate faster than that, according to his budget request. Polis recommended the release by September of hundreds of prisoners, including those already approved for parole, those who are close to parole and non-violent offenders who are only in prison for a short time because of a technical parole violation.

The release of those inmates would immediately open about 300 beds while lawmakers pursue more long-term reform, according to the budget proposal.

Polis said he would support legislation that would end long-term reincarceration for nonviolent offenders who violate parole on a technicality and a bill that would allow automatic parole for low-risk offenders after they serve their minimum sentence.

Polis’ proposal also earmarked $1 million in additional funding for the voucher program that helps inmates find housing after release as well as more money for parole services staff and a work-release program.

Former Gov. John Hickenlooper proposed reopening Centennial South in his final budget request before leaving office. His plan would have added 632 new state prison beds to the system and swapped the purpose of the renovated prison with that of the Denver Reception and Diagnostic Center.

Under his plan, the Denver facility would host inmates using a residential treatment program or who need long-term care while the Cañon City prison would become the hub for the intake of new inmates and those in re-entry programs.

Polis indicated in his budget request that he would do the same if Centennial South were to reopen. Officials have said that needed renovations at both facilities could cost about $11 million.