Arizona legislators and state officials want to expand the state’s crowded corrections system, adding beds at existing state prisons and others at private facilities.
The first of those beds would be ready as early as late 2008. Until then, the state would continue sending prisoners out of state.
The plan could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Arizona has approximately 36,600 inmates. Most are in state-owned prisons but approximately 4,150 are in privately owned and operated prisons in Arizona.
An additional 2,100 Arizona inmates are housed in privately operated prisons in Indiana and Oklahoma on what officially is considered a “provisional” basis for limited periods of time.
However, with the prison population growing at up to 200 inmates a month because of get-tough sentencing and other factors, there’s no end in sight for use of the provisional beds, at least for now, said George Cunningham, Gov. Janet Napolitano’s top budget adviser.
And steps are already being taken to continue and expand Arizona’s reliance on out-of-state facilities.
A contract awarded to Houston-based Cornell Companies will put up to 2,000 inmates at the private Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton, Okla. later this year, an Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman said May 4.
Meanwhile, Arizona’s own regular prisons have thousands of inmates above their designed capacities, forcing the Department of Corrections to take steps that include constructing tent units and putting two inmates in cells designed for one.
Crowded prisons spell trouble
Crowded prisons are regarded as dangerous for both inmates and staff. A recent disturbance at an Indiana prison housing hundreds of Arizona inmates reportedly unhappy with circumstances of their move illustrated tensions caused in the state’s prison system.
“We need more beds and we need them quickly,” said Rep. Phil Lopes, D-27. “This Indiana business doesn’t get it.”
Arizona has tried to add beds before. But recent efforts were dealt a setback earlier this year when state procurement officials decided that bids submitted by the Department of Corrections and several companies failed to meet state requirements.
A new Napolitano-backed plan, which is part of the Senate’s proposed budget, includes expanding existing state prisons to add 4,000 new beds and contracting for an additional 2,000 private beds. The 6,000 new beds would be added over about two years.
“This is the beginning of the process to get those prisons built,” said Senate President Tim Bee, R-30.
A rival budget drafted by House Republicans commits the state to adding 4,000 permanent beds — 2,000 private first and then 2,000 public.
Both the Senate and House plans include dollars to pay for 2,000 and 1,650 additional “provisional” beds, respectively, in the fiscal year that starts July 1.
However, money for the planned thousands of additional permanent beds would come out of future years’ budgets.
Konopnicki on beds: ‘We need them now’
A legislator who works on prison issues said lawmakers aren’t putting a high enough priority on the lack of bed space and related concerns.
“We need them now. We’re in desperate need of them now,” said Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-5. “We really haven’t addressed it in this budget. The theory is we will address it at some point.”
With rising construction costs, “the longer we put it off, the more expensive it becomes,” Konopnicki said.
The House budget includes a $22.2 million appropriation in the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2008, as a partial payment toward the additional 2,000 private beds.
That represents a promise by lawmakers, said House Majority Leader Tom Boone, R-4. “We’ve made the commitment.”
Both the House and Senate versions envision using lease-purchase financing — similar to a residential mortgage — to pay for the additional permanent public beds, a cost that Cunningham said could tally $200 million.
The state pays for private beds on a per-day charge per inmate, with that cost incorporating the private company’s operating expenses as well as its financing costs for building the facility in the first place.
The additional 6,000 permanent beds could make it unnecessary to ship inmates out of state but that’s based on a 160-inmate monthly net increase to the prison population, Cunningham said.
If sentencings and other factors keep that rate at the current 200 per month, “then we might need to continue to find those beds outside Arizona,” he said.
Still, Napolitano believes the 6,000-bed plan “will really make a big difference in terms of making a big difference in terms of keeping taking care of our inmates in our state,” Cunningham said.
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