Panel to interview private prison firm. Lawmakers vote to invite presentation despite correction officials’ opposition
BY CHARLIE FRAGO
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
LITTLE ROCK — A legislative panel voted Thursday to invite a corrections company to present its ideas about privatizing Arkansas prisons despite opposition from state correction officials.
The Emerald Cos. of Shreveport will be invited to appear before the Charitable, Penal and Correctional Institutions Subcommittee. No date has been set.
The panel’s chairman originally said he hadn’t been approached by any lobbyists or private-prison companies, but Rep. Johnny Hoyt, D-Morrilton, said later Thursday that he visited one of the company’s Texas facilities in June at the request of a lobbyist.
Hoyt said his interest isn’t to do the bidding of Bruce Hawkins of Morrilton, who asked him to visit Emerald, but to find ways to alleviate crowding in county jails caused by the state lacking enough prison beds.
“We give the sheriffs some help,” Hoyt said. “The bottom line is money. If we can save the state money, why not do it?” Hawkins didn’t return a phone call seeking his comment. An Emerald official contacted Thursday said he had no knowledge of the company’s interest in Arkansas.
Department of Correction Director Larry Norris told the panel that the state’s previous experience with privatization hadn’t gone well.
The Wackenhut Corp. of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., managed the McPherson and Grimes units in Newport from 1998 to 2001 but pulled out after state officials balked at paying the company more money to run those prisons, Norris said.
High staff turnover, shoddy maintenance and poor medical care that resulted in a U.S. Department of Justice investigation dimmed his view of private corrections, Norris said.
“I’m not for it at this point,” he said.
Board of Corrections Chairman Benny Magness of Gassville also said he preferred for the state to run its prisons, pointing to the community service that regional maintenance crews provide towns across the state.
Private companies lack the staff and profit incentive to provide those services, Magness said.
Rep. Lance Reynolds, D-Quitman, said he wanted to hear the other side of the story, noting that the Correction Department spends an average of $57.13 per day on each inmate, but county jails receive from the state only $28 a day per inmate.
“There’s no incentive for y’all to change,” he said.
The state average daily inmate rate is one of the country’s lowest, said Dina Tyler, Correction Department spokesman.
Gov. Mike Beebe, the attorney general during the federal probe that followed Wackenhut, has said he’ll remain open to new ideas to relieve prison crowding, but his spokesman has said the state has learned from that experience.
Beebe’s proposed budget doesn’t include money for new prison beds, although he said it would be a high priority for money from his proposed rainy-day fund.
“If we don’t have any more money, how can we fund private prisons?” Magness asked lawmakers.
This article was published 11/21/2008
Copyright 2008 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.