Prison proposal draws criticism

BOISE – The idea that Idaho could import out-of-state murderers, rapists and other criminals to serve time at new profit-making private lockups in the state makes some key state lawmakers squirm.

“I have some questions about the advisability of doing that – I think a lot of people do,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Denton Darrington, R-Declo. “I’m not sure it would be well-received by the citizens of the state.”

Yet that’s just what’s envisioned in new legislation being drafted for Idaho by Gov. Butch Otter through his Criminal Justice Commission. Otter wants to explore whether Idaho’s next prison should be a private prison – built, run and owned by a for-profit firm and allowed to fill extra beds with out-of-state prisoners to maintain its bottom line.

“Certainly there would be an interest level there from CCA,” said Steve Owen, spokesman for Corrections Corporation of America, one of the nation’s major private prison firms. “The legislation I think is a good incentivization to a company like CCA.”

Idaho already contracts with CCA to run the Idaho Correctional Center, a state-owned but privately built and operated prison south of Boise. That no-frills operation saves money by housing prisoners in large open dorms filled with bunk beds, and state officials say the arrangement has been a success. But that lockup takes only Idaho prisoners – not out-of-staters.

Washington has no private prisons, according to state corrections spokeswoman Maria Peterson. But as many as 17 states are now letting companies import prisoners. CCA alone is guarding about 9,000 out-of-state prisoners in five states: Colorado, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arizona and Minnesota.

Owen said being able to bring in out-of-state prisoners makes a private prison work financially, even if its main aim is to provide beds for in-state inmates. “Having the flexibility to be able to market those beds to other potential customers – state, federal, etc. – certainly makes it more attractive to invest the resources to bring a facility online,” he said.

Idaho state Corrections Director Brent Reinke, who is coordinating a working group that’s drafting the legislation, said three options are being laid out for construction of Idaho’s next prison: follow the Idaho Correctional Center model; go private; or go with a traditional state-built and state-run prison.

Reinke said he’s pulling together all the options at the request of the governor and the state Board of Correction. His main concern is that the governor and Legislature pick one of them – so Idaho can start adding much-needed prison space. “We really need those beds,” Reinke said.

Idaho now has 550 inmates in private prisons out of state for lack of beds at home and expects that number to rise to more than 800 by December. Its existing prisons are full to bursting, and its inmate population continues to grow.

Of the three options, only the all-private one requires changing Idaho’s laws, but it would require extensive changes. So Reinke invited private prison firms, cities and counties, legislators, state officials and others to help draft something that would work.

The result, which still is being finalized, would allow private prison firms to come into Idaho if they contract with either the state or an Idaho city or county and get a state license. Their guards would have to be certified by Idaho’s Peace Officer Standards and Training academy, and they would be authorized to use force in certain circumstances. Idaho could turn away any out-of-state inmate, but in general, any type of inmate could be brought in as long as they weren’t escapees or designated violent sexual predators, or have other in-prison crimes on their records in the past five years.

The legislation also would allow Idaho to “bump” out-of-state inmates with 30 days notice if the state needed the beds.

State Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, said, “I had originally thought that it could be a good sell for Kootenai County.”

The county needs to expand its jail, Clark said, and bringing in a private prison instead could give it jail beds plus bring in property taxes, without the big upfront cost of building a new jail.

But Clark said he’s starting to wonder if it all makes sense economically. “In the short run it’s going to be cheaper for us, but in the long run, it’s going to cost us more money,” he said.

Reinke said current research suggests the state could save money initially by going private, but any savings disappear after about five years.

Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, co-chairman of the Idaho Legislature’s joint budget committee, has requested financial analyses of all three prison-building options. “Is there any significant savings – is there any savings at all to allowing a private entity to build a facility?” Cameron asked. “So far, no one has been able to demonstrate any savings to me.”

He noted that Idaho has a top bond rating, making its own financing for building a new prison among the cheapest financing available. The state issued bonds to finance the Idaho Correctional Center a decade ago, and had CCA design, build and manage it, while keeping the facility in state ownership. The arrangement allowed Idaho to get a new prison at the speed offered by a private contractor, but with the security of state ownership, he said.

“That model seems to have worked well,” Cameron said.

Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, said, “I am not opposed to having a discussion that includes all of the options that are out there.”

But Davis said he’s leaning strongly against letting private firms bring out-of-state criminals into Idaho to do time – in part because they could pose a risk to Idahoans, and in part because if they commit new crimes while they’re locked up here, they’d become Idaho prisoners and the state would have to house them for those subsequent sentences.

“I have a problem modifying the statute to allow a business or industry to bring in persons who have proven to be capable of very serious criminal misconduct,” Davis said. “It’s not something that I’m a fan of.”

A decade ago, Mountain Home, a city south of Boise, announced plans to bring in a large private prison as an economic development project. Idaho then passed restrictive private prison laws – which permitted cities or counties to contract with private prison firms, but it added so many restrictions that neither Mountain Home’s nor any other local private prison was ever built in Idaho.

The legislation now being drafted would lift many of those restrictions, including a ban on out-of-state sex offenders.

That’s a reflection of what it would take to attract private prison firms into the state, Reinke said. “They like sex offenders, because they tend to be easy to manage.”