Despite Moves to Private Prisons, They May Cost Even MoreMore than 30 states use private prisons for some inmates but data in Arizona suggest that privately operated prisons can cost more to operate than state-run prisons, even though they often steer clear of the sickest, costliest inmates, the New York Times reports.
Florida and Ohio are planning major shifts toward private prisons, and Arizona is expected to sign deals doubling its private-inmate population. “There’s a perception that the private sector is always going to do it more efficiently and less costly,” said Russ Van Vleet, former co-director of the University of Utah Criminal Justice Center. “But there really isn’t much out there that says that’s correct.” Despite an Arizona law saying private prisons must create “cost savings,” the state’s data indicate that inmates in private prisons can cost as much as $1,600 more per year, while many cost about the same as they do in state-run prisons. The Arizona Department of Corrections research shows private prisons often house only relatively healthy inmates.
The times are clear for the citizens of Ohio and Arizona as these two states share one commonality in their respective governments. Both governors are Republicans and both are newly elected to the office. Also, both have state budget deficits that have created a need to close the gap on their need to provide public serve at a quality pace and standard. While Ohio is considering a sell off, Arizona is adding assets. This action was a direct result of an era of mass incarceration spurred by the opportunities provided to many leaders of numerous states to substitute their cost of building new prisons to rent or lease private prisons that could do the job for them at a suggested lesser cost. According to the Justice Bureau, American prisons have expanded at a rate of 82 per cent during the last ten years and stand at 129,336 and growing. Many of these are state owned prisons but the number of private prisons has kept pace with the growing prison population. Ohio is contemplating selling five of their state prisons to raise approximately $ 200 million to cover the gap. At the current rate, Ohio has an 8 billion dollar budget gap.
Arizona is taking the opposite road as their mission and their energy has been focused on expanding prisons inside their state lines offering other states the opportunity to house their prisoners inside various communities under the supervision of private prison contractors who have no obligation to the state other than keeping these prisoners housed and fed for the duration of their sentence. Governor Brewer, with the assistance of her two closest advisors who share a persona interest in the growth of private prisons, has agreed to allow the Arizona Department of Corrections to bid out 5,000 additional beds to expand the prison system inside the Grand Canyon state. Offering incremental growth rather than expanding at a higher rate of 5,000 beds, these bids are ready to be announced according to a department spokesperson who revealed the names of the contractors that submitted bids on the contract.
So as Ohio takes the high road to sell their prisons to balance their budget, Arizona takes the low road to burden their citizens with even more costs than before. Already at a $ 1 billion dollar cost, Arizona is suffering in meeting educational, healthcare and many other public services because of their budgetary shortfalls. They believe that the growth of prisons will add revenue to their coffers and that this is the best deal they can offer its citizens for budget relief. The proposed sale of five state prisons is based on supposed savings that would be achieved by private operation. But the state has not shown it has a reliable way to compute such savings from two existing prisons run by a private company. A recent study for Policy Matters Ohio finds the state's calculations to be not only riddled with errors, oversights, and omissions of significant data, but also potentially tainted by controversial accounting assumptions that many experts consider deeply flawed. The state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has released a new set of numbers that also, not surprisingly, tout dramatic savings. But these new calculations raise as many questions as they answer.
Dylan Smith of the Tucson Sentinel reports that Arizona's true state budget deficit is $2.1 billion, more than triple the $825 million cited by Gov. Jan Brewer and Republicans in the Legislature, a new study estimates. Arizona on the other hand has decided that private prisons are a good solution for economy, their budget and unemployment. Although hard facts reveal there is no profit margin in running private prisons paid through state funds, there are enough politicians supporting this concept to make it happen. An April study by the Arizona Corrections Department concluded that the daily per-capita cost for medium-custody private facilities was $53.02, higher than the state cost of $48.42 after adjustments for medical payments. Unlike private contractors, the state “is required to provide medical and mental health services to inmates regardless of the severity of their condition,” the report said. Ohio, on the other hand has contractual agreements to prevent the private prisons to “reject” those that are sick and in needs of specialized care e.g. mental health, chronic illnesses, etc.
This addiction to get a “high” out of their low contractual responsibilities has caused many major security issues for the private prisons with the most highly publicized being the escape of the three convicted murderers from the privately run Kingman prison that housed state prisoners but failed to adhere to those “same state standards” as their contract required. Recently one of these murderers, John McCluskey, appeared in a courtroom in Albuquerque shackled and wearing a yellow jumpsuit, pleaded not guilty. McCluskey was one of three inmates who authorities say escaped last July from Kingman prison and went on a multi-state crime spree. He is charged with carjacking and murder in the deaths of Gary and Linda Haas., whose bodies were found in eastern New Mexico. This matter, still has not been resolved yet as the family of the two innocent people murdered by two of these escapees have filed a claim to sue the state for $ 40 million dollars with much emphasis being focused on the lack of security provided and the lack of state oversight that allowed dismal conditions to exist through an apathy of allowing these private prisons to run “their own” rather than following state standards. As of today, these private prison contractors are under no legal obligation to share with the state, the public or the media any of their business transactions and how they operate there facilities.
Replacing contract monitors with more experienced individuals was the only step the state took to ensure compliance with policies. In the matter of holding them to “state standards” Arizona Republic reporter Bob Ortega wrote several articles on how state facilities are not in compliance of their own security standards and its highly likely that Arizona will never be in accordance with sound correctional practices until their facilities are accredited by an independent prison accreditation organization such as the American Corrections Association
ACA) that is nationally accepted and recognized as a good source for prison operations.
Source:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-29/kasich-tries-to-avoid-arizona-s-mistakes-in-ohio-prison-selloff.html
