Mission Statement

The mission of Canteen Services is to provide work and self-improvement opportunities to assist in successful community reintegration, to provide high quality, fairly priced merchandise and services to the inmate population in an efficient and profitable manner, aid in the maintenance of a secure environment, and to reduce reliance on taxpayer provided funds for inmate recreational, educational and social benefit expenditures.

History

Canteen Services, as we know it today, began in 1987. At that time, we were based out of Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility, and served approximately 2200 inmates in the Canon Complex. As the Department continued to grow, all outlying canteens were consolidated into a centralized facility and the inmate customer base grew to 13,000. This large customer base is now served by the Central Canteen located at Canon Minimum Centers, and the Northern Canteen located at Denver Women's Correctional Facility.

The Canteen Program is a state-of-the-art system that has integrated the Department of Corrections Information Systems (DCIS) to become a very efficient and profitable entity while providing jobs for inmates. This system is designed to be cooperative with all facilities and the dynamic design consistently serves and benefits the many stakeholders.

The Colorado Inmate Phone System (CIPS) is another part of the Canteen Program. Phone time is purchased through the Central or Northern Canteen and transferred to CIPS to allow the offenders to make calls from their facility.

Robert F. (Bobby) Harlan, Program Manager