Be wary of turning to private prisons

opinions

February 14, 2017 - 12:00 AM

Several years ago there was a move afoot in Yates Center to build a private prison. The thought was it would be an economic boost for the town, which then and today is known as the Hay Capital of Kansas.
Derek Schmidt, a Kansas senator at the time, gave his support. The Department of Corrections was amenable to taking a look. Private prisons in Texas were cited as examples of efficiency and cost-savings. To fill security positions, residents of Woodson and nearby counties were assured they would finds jobs waiting.
The idea eventually drifted away.
The Associated Press reported Feb. 3 DOC Secretary Joe Norwood announced the state would solicit proposals from private companies to build a new prison in Lansing, on the promise it would be safer and cheaper to maintain.
A lease-purchase agreement would pay for the facility, which didn’t resonate with all legislators: “This is a back door to privatization of our corrections system,” said Sen. Laura Kelly, D-Topeka. Her suspicions may have been fertilized by Norwood’s announcement that didn’t make clear how Kansas would finance the project, only that it would be “budget neutral” for the DOC.
John Hanna, veteran AP Statehouse reporter, said Norwood’s announcement was a bolt from the blue for legislators, who are tackling not only a $320 million budget shortfall that must be closed by June 30, but also close to $1 billion that must be made up through June 2019.
The Lansing prison, dating to the Civil War, would be razed, except for a small original part preserved for history’s sake. The prison has long rows of tiered cells rather than the modern pod concept, which gives security advantages, and is rated at 2,405 male inmates; usually its population is near capacity.

THE MOST notable of Kansas privatization efforts has been KanCare, a program that has three private insurance companies administering Medicaid for 415,000 residents. By many accounts KanCare’s success has been underwhelming. Kansas Medicaid has been beleaguered by Gov. Sam Brownback’s refusal to accept more than $1 billion in federal funding to expand coverage.
Is rebuilding Lansing Correctional Facility a progenitor for privately operated prisons in Kansas? At this point that is anyone’s guess. DOC spokesman Todd Fertig told the AP if (emphasis added) the department leases the new prison, workers would remain state employees.
Private prisons, housing somewhere over 10 percent of U.S. inmates, have not proven conclusively to be a high-growth enterprise. Not all have been successful.
According to an investigation by National Public Radio’s All Things Considered: “Critics have long questioned quality of private prisons and the promise of economic benefits …” A 464-bed, $27 million private prison in Montana completed in 2007 went nine years without occupants and at the most has had 250 in the last year. Benefits to Hardin, where it was built, have been grotesquely negative.
In Arizona, the auditor general found it “might be more expensive to hold Arizona prisoners in private, for-profit facilities than in public ones.”
Private prison safety and security also are concerns, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. An ACLU study claims “violence is actually higher in private prisons.”
What are we to think?
Trump rails about government inefficiency and cost overruns, and such glaring revelations as $100 claw hammers and $150 toilet seats send taxpayers into frenzies.
We must remember that if Kansas were to follow Texas’ lead and start turning prison construction and operation over to private companies, each has stockholders and a board of directors all of whom hang on profit-and-loss statements.
We think until private prisons elsewhere categorically prove they can operate without doing so on the cheap and exacerbating security problems brought about by being driven by the bottom line, we’re better off in Kansas to give the responsibility to the DOC and state employees.

— Bob Johnson

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