Otter pushing privately owned prisons
BOISE – Gov. Butch Otter began selling a plan to lawmakers on Wednesday to let prison companies own and operate for-profit lockups in Idaho, arguing it’s better for corporations to pay upfront costs of housing a growing inmate population than it is for the state to sell bonds for such projects, like it has been done in the past.
Currently, Idaho law prevents corporations from building for-profit prisons.
For instance, although Corrections Corporation of America, based in Tennessee, built the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise in 2000 and now runs it, the state owns the facility.
Under Otter’s proposal, companies could own their own facilities, although only after the state issues a permit for a new facility. Inmates from elsewhere could be brought here, but Idaho prisoners would have priority and could “bump” inmates from other states to make room for them.
And while sex offenders would likely be allowed, violent sexual predators would be forbidden.
The Department of Correction predicts Idaho will have nearly 9,400 inmates in its system by 2012, up from about 7,400 now. The agency has prison beds for just 6,300 inmates, so it’s shipped about 500 to Texas and Oklahoma, with others housed in county jails across Idaho.
Otter, a former businessman who touts free-market solutions, aims to let firms like Corrections Corporation of America and Florida’s The GEO Group, build a $250 million, 2,100-bed prison, starting as soon as possible. The companies are building tens of thousands of private prison beds across America.
“The governor thinks there is a huge benefit to having a private entity fund the construction of the facility and then operate the facility,” said David Hensley, Otter’s staff attorney, adding Idaho still owes $71 million in bond payments for its last prison. “The governor is concerned taking on another $250 million in bond payments is quite an undertaking.”
Senate President Pro Tem Robert Geddes, R-Soda Springs, agreed Idaho needs a new prison.
Still, the system that leaves ownership in state hands has worked well, he said. If things change, Geddes raised concerns about repeating problems in Texas, where one Idaho inmate killed himself in March and prisoners have been moved several times after alleged abuse by guards.
“If you allow a private prison to develop … they’re obviously looking to maximize their profits,” Geddes said. “Does that mean we’re going to become what we have utilized Texas for?”