Private Prison Will Demand Scrutiny, Legislators Warned Corrections Director Sees Need For Full-Time Monitor

Idaho needs to be extremely vigilant as it contracts with private companies for prison services or even a whole prison, the state Corrections Department director told lawmakers Monday.

“If you don’t pay attention to that contract, they’re in for profit, there’s no doubt about it, and we’ll end up losing,” James Spalding told the Legislature’s budget committee.

The department is beefing up its contract-monitoring staff, Spalding said. If it ends up contracting for a large private prison, it probably will need a full-time person at the facility keeping tabs, he said.

Idaho already has contracted with private companies for inmates’ medical and commissary services. So far, those have been good experiences for the state and have saved money, he said.

But without monitoring, the state wouldn’t know if, for example, a company kept positions vacant to save money.

“Their job will be to look at this and be sure that those people are doing what they said they’d do,” Spalding said. “We still have the liability.”

Spalding’s department is working on plans to contract with a private firm to build and operate a 1,250-bed prison on state-owned land near Boise, with expansion space to boost the facility to 3,000 beds. Members of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee appeared supportive of the idea as Spalding made his budget presentation Monday.

The project has prompted plenty of interest from companies both local and national, Spalding said.

“They’re already hiring lobbyists here in town and the whole bit,” he said. “We’re going to hear a lot of it.”

The committee will hear a full report on prison privatization Feb. 10.

But most of the news from Spalding’s department was grim. Prison populations continue to swell, and prisons are swallowing an ever-increasing portion of the state budget.

This month, Idaho has 516 more inmates than it had in January 1996, Spalding said. All of Idaho’s prison facilities are filled beyond capacity, and hundreds of inmates are being housed in county jails or out of state.

Counties have asked the Legislature to up its per-inmate daily fee for housing state prisoners from $35 to $45. But Spalding warned that would cost the Corrections Department $1 million, without providing a single additional bed.

Sen. Bruce Sweeney, D-Lewiston, asked Spalding, “With the advent of NAFTA, has anyone ever looked into contracting with Mexico? I know that it’s considerably less money.”

Spalding first thought Sweeney was referring to deporting illegal aliens, but Sweeney corrected him, saying he was talking about “our regular prisoners.”

Spalding told Sweeney that was “a new wrinkle” that he was “certainly willing to discuss.”

However, he said, immigration laws and jurisdictional concerns likely would preclude such an arrangement. When an inmate is deported, the United States gives up its jurisdiction and essentially must drop the charges against the prisoner.

Spalding’s presentation did include a few bright spots:

A 100-bed unit added at Givens Hall at the Orofino prison cost the state just $600,000 because inmates did all the work. Had the state used private contractors for the construction work, it would have cost about $2 million, Spalding said.

Idaho’s medical costs for inmates are $6.3 million below last year’s, under the contract the state negotiated with Correctional Medical Services Corp.

Although there are fewer guards per inmate since the state started double-bunking cells because of lack of space, “we have not had significant problems” in managing inmates, Spalding said. There have, however, been more assaults, suicidal behavior and the like, “just based on sheer numbers.”

Judges have been pleased with the results of the “boot camp” program at the North Idaho Correctional Institution at Cottonwood.

, DataTimes