Efforts to relieve Arizona’s shortage of prison space were dealt a setback when procurement officials canceled a competition between the state Department of Corrections and three private prison companies to provide up to 3,000 new beds.
None of the proposals met a requirement to open 1,000 of the beds by April 2008, the State Procurement Office said in a formal notice canceling the state’s request for proposals. The notice was obtained by The Associated Press on March 16.
The three companies submitting proposals were GEO Group Inc., based in Boca Raton, Fla.; Management & Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah, and Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America.
It’s now up to the Legislature to decide what to do about the 2006 law that directed the Department of Administration to seek proposals and set the deadline for opening 1,000 beds, department spokesman Alan Ecker said.
Corrections Department spokeswoman Katie Decker said the prison agency was beginning to consider its options. “We’re regrouping,” she said.
Decker also said the Corrections Department was prepared to meet the required timeline. “I don’t know if there was confusion … but our understanding was that we would have been able to do that.”
Decker declined to list available options but noted that the federal government and California also are in the market for prison beds.
Arizona’s 36,000-inmate prison system on March 19 announced an agreement with Indiana to send 1,260 inmates to a prison in New Castle, Ind. Arizona also has 1,400 inmates at a private prison in Oklahoma.
The Procurement Office’s cancellation notice, dated March 19, also cited concerns raised about the Department of Corrections’ dual role as both a bidder and as a supplier of information used to help draft the request for proposals.
Ecker reiterated previous statements that separate teams of Corrections Department personnel worked on either side of the project.
Ecker said he didn’t know how that concern might be addressed if there is a new request for proposals. “At this point this particular procurement is over and we’ll just wait and see what the Legislature chooses to do and act accordingly,” he said.
Before the Department of Administration confirmed that the solicitation had been canceled, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Burns, R-9, said he was briefed on the development but, citing confidentiality of procurement matters, did not feel comfortable discussing it publicly.
The Corrections Department and the three companies submitted their proposals last month. The state was to have awarded a contract by June 30.
According to the cancellation notice, the proposals will remain confidential because the state could request new ones.
On the Net:
Arizona Department of Corrections: http://www.adc.state.az.us
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