Throughout my career, I have worked to help people rebuild their lives after involvement with the justice system — supporting successful re-entry, strengthening families, and helping individuals return home and contribute to their communities.
That work matters because effective re-entry reduces recidivism, improves public safety, and creates stronger communities for all of us.
Unfortunately, a recent commentary about my past employment blatantly misrepresents both my work and my values.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE MARCH 3, 2026 COMMENTARY
The people of House District 41 deserve the truth about my record and the work I have dedicated my career to — helping justice-involved individuals rebuild their lives and return successfully to their communities.
The facts are straightforward. During my time with GEO, I worked in the re-entry services division, which is completely separate from corrections and detention operations, such as the Aurora immigration detention facility. My role focused on helping people already living in the community stabilize their lives — connecting them with housing, employment, treatment, and support services so they could successfully reintegrate.
Ironically, the work being criticized is exactly the kind of re-entry support experts agree is essential if we are serious about reducing incarceration and helping people rebuild their lives.
During my time with GEO, my role in the re-entry services division remained unchanged, though the geographic territory I covered expanded, continuing work focused on helping people successfully transition back into the community.
That commitment reflects the broader focus of my career. Over the years, I have served in roles supporting justice-involved individuals and strengthening communities, including work with the Denver Sheriff Department, in re-entry services helping people transition home from incarceration, and later with mission-driven organizations such as the Colorado Children’s Campaign, advocating for policies that strengthen opportunities for kids and families, and the Naloxone Project, working to address the overdose crisis and save lives.
Today, I continue that work in the Colorado Legislature.
While working for the Denver Sheriff Department, I helped create the first jail-based voter education and registration program in Colorado. Our program ensured that people in custody understood their voting rights and had the opportunity to participate in our democracy. It later became a model for other jurisdictions across the state, and today Colorado law requires jails to provide voter services to people in their care.
As a legislator, I have continued advancing policies that support justice-involved individuals and strengthen successful re-entry. I passed HB25-1294, legislation that extended the elimination of certain court costs previously imposed on youth in the justice system, helping remove financial barriers that can follow young people long after their cases are resolved.
This year I am sponsoring HB26-1064, which updates the Youthful Offender System to strengthen evidence-based treatment and rehabilitation, and HB26-1256, which ensures people leaving the Department of Corrections have the essential identification documents and resources they need to successfully reintegrate into their communities.
My record on immigration and human rights is equally clear. I am an early co-sponsor of this year’s immigrant protection legislation, including HB26-1275 and HB26-1276, and I supported similar measures last year, including HB25-1244 and SB25-276.
I have also joined community leaders in supporting efforts to close the GEO immigration detention facility in Aurora. No one should face mistreatment in carceral settings, and I have consistently supported policies that protect dignity and human rights.
I also want to acknowledge something personal. I am a single mother who has worked hard throughout my career to provide for my child while serving my community at the same time.
Like many working parents, I took jobs that allowed me to support my family while doing work that helped others rebuild their lives.
When I learned about practices within GEO’s corrections operations that conflicted with my values, I made the decision to leave and began searching for another opportunity. As a single mother supporting my family, I left as soon as I was able. That was five years ago.
Political campaigns sometimes bring attempts to distort people’s histories and spread misinformation for political gain. That kind of politics serves no one and distracts from the real work our communities expect from their leaders. I stand on my values, my record, and the results we’ve delivered for our community.
Throughout my career, and now in the Legislature, I have focused on turning values into action and ideas into policy that improves people’s lives. Over the past two legislative sessions, I have built a record of passing legislation and advancing policies that strengthen re-entry, expand behavioral health access, and protect vulnerable communities.
House District 41 deserves leadership grounded in values, truth, and proven results — leadership that has already delivered for our community and will continue doing the work to move us forward.
Democratic state Rep. Jamie Jackson represents Colorado House District 41 and is running for re-election.
While Jackson ran the GEO re-entry programs that she is so proud of, they were shut down by Denver County because they were basically pay-to-reenter schemes that held people hostage and made $580 million in profits for the greedy corporations who then donated to Jackson’s campaign for state house because they’re scared of getting shut down across the state.
https://denverite.com/2020/03/22/shunning-massive-corporate-operators-criminal-justice-advocates-hope-to-open-a-public-halfway-house-in-denver/
Denverite
This was literally under Jamie Jackson’s leadership, during the SEVEN YEARS she was a regional manager of these programs and claims she didn’t know it was bad. She was a criminal justice major – you can’t study criminal justice without studying extensively the horrible impacts of for-profit prison systems. She ignored all of that for SEVEN YEARS while she got her own money – and now she wants to pretend she left out of some “ethical” realization (that came SEVEN YEARS LATER), but she also wants us to know that she is proud of it. And she still took money from the lobbyist from her former employment last year.
This panicked defense is entirely lies and spin from a sneaky politician who is being propped up by corporate interests.
If Jackson is so proud of her GEO experience, why does she not list it on her website?
“Professionally, my career has focused on systems change in service to those most often left behind. I previously served as Program Administrator for the Denver Sheriff Department, where I led Colorado’s first jail-based voter registration and education program, ensuring that justice-involved individuals were not stripped of their voice. As Chief Operating Officer of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, I helped advance legislation that improved health, education, and economic outcomes for children and families. I also served as Chief Operating Officer of The Naloxone Project, leading efforts to expand access to lifesaving naloxone across Colorado and multiple states, reduce stigma, and prevent overdose deaths.”
Weird.