Colorado Prison Enhances Security Over Threats to Break Out Tina Peters

A prison break is apparently scheduled for tomorrow, January 31, in an attempt to free Tina Peters from the La Vista Correctional Facility.

The far-fetched plan has been circulating on conservative social media accounts for over a month, starting with right-wing provocateur Jake Lang. He declared on December 15 that “U.S. marshals and January 6ers” intended to “storm” the Pueblo facility if Peters was not released by January 31. That original post received over 200,000 views and has been shared across numerous online platforms.

The Colorado Department of Corrections is taking precautionary measures in response, says Communications Director Alondra Gonzalez-Garcia.

“The CDOC takes all threats seriously,” Gonzalez-Garcia says. “In coordination with local law enforcement and the Colorado State Patrol, we have implemented enhanced security measures and constant surveillance of the facility and its perimeter.”

The threat comes amid Peters’s ongoing appeals effort and President Donald Trump’s calls for the former Mesa County clerk to be released. In December, Trump even claimed to issue a presidential pardon for Peters…despite the fact that the president does not have the power to pardon state convictions.

Peters, 70, was sentenced to nine years behind bars in October 2024 for helping an unauthorized person access sensitive county voting records and equipment. The scheme was inspired by repeatedly discredited claims that Trump, rather than Joe Biden, won the 2020 election.

Peters has since become a celebrity and martyr among election deniers nationwide. That star status could potentially add legitimacy to an otherwise ridiculous threat to breach the prison.

The county courthouse that handled Peters’s case similarly beefed up security after the judge received threats following her sentencing.

“Our facilities are specifically designed, and our staff professionally trained, to maintain a secure environment for the community, our employees, and those in our custody,” Gonzalez-Garcia says. “All operations at the facility are currently functioning normally. The CDOC remains fully committed to the safety of the Pueblo community and the State of Colorado.”

Even if protesters are able to get inside the prison, Peters will refuse to leave with them, says her attorney, Peter Ticktin.

“She would never cooperate with these ne’er-do-wells,” Ticktin says. “Tina Peters has been very clear in regard to any actions by anyone who wants to protest at the prison. She asks in the most definite terms possible to please not do so. These people are not helping Tina Peters’s case or helping anyone other than the organizers themselves, who are trying to cash in on Tina’s name for their own aggrandizement.”

Lang hasn’t posted anything on X about Peters or the prison break since his initial December 15 video. His recent social media activity shows him in Minneapolis, where he claims he was “lynched” by anti-ICE protesters.

Lang did not respond to inquiries from Westword regarding whether he still plans to storm the Colorado prison on January 31.

“I know the man who wrote the letters threatening to break Tina Peters out of prison. He is an opportunist who seeks to make himself relevant by jumping into other people’s situations, as though his unwanted ‘help’ is wanted,” Ticktin says. “These officious interlopers should realize that no one wants their interaction, and that Tina Peters will not cooperate with them, even if they should be able to break in to break her out.”

Peters would likely put up a good fight against any intruders. Earlier this month, she was involved in an altercation with a fellow inmate, during which surveillance footage appears to show Peters grabbing the woman by the neck and pushing her.

Peters will be eligible for parole in December 2028…barring any unforeseen interference.