By Kim Chandler
Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley’s plan to build four new prisons advanced out of committee on Wednesday, but not without some skepticism by lawmakers and a potential fight over who will get the lucrative construction work.
The Senate Finance and Taxation Committee approved the bill, sending it to the Senate floor for consideration. The vote came on the heels of two violent uprisings at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in which inmates stabbed the warden, a corrections officer, lit fires and seized control of a dormitory and tried to get into other areas of the prison.
Bentley said Tuesday that the violence will continue if problems caused by overcrowding and outdated buildings are not addressed.
“We have to have new construction. You can’t look at that facility and say that’s OK,” Sen. Cam Ward, chairman of the legislative prison oversight, said during the discussion.
Bentley is seeking legislative approval for an $800 million bond issue and a change to bid law so design and construction can be awarded in one contract. Under the plan, the state would build four new prisons and shutter most existing facilities.
While the committee advanced the bill, senators raised concerns about the plan as it heads to an uncertain Senate vote.
Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, said he is worried Alabama firms will be cut out of the work under Bentley’s “design-build” plan.
“My only concern, I want Alabama contractors to be involved,” Waggoner said, adding that he intended to bring an amendment to change the bill.
Sen. Billy Beasley, D-Clayton, said there are three existing correctional facilities in his district, and those jobs will be lost if the facilities are shuttered.
“It’s our Mercedes. It’s our jobs,” Beasley said. The south Alabama senator said he was “pleading” with the governor to leave those facilities open.
Sen. Trip Pittman, the bill’s sponsor, said the bill is stuck between two “entrenched” sides— the governor’s office, which is adamant about the design-build concept, and contractors and legislators who oppose it.
The proposal could see its first floor vote next week in a legislative session that has already reached its midway point.
Acting Finance Director Newton told committee members that the design-build concept will allow the prisons to be built quicker and cheaper. He said that will allow the state to repay the bonds over the next 30 years without new revenue. The administration has contended that the savings generated by larger and modern facilities will be enough to repay the bonds.
Newton said the bond issue numbers will not work without “design-build.”
Sen. Priscilla Dunn, D-Bessemer, chided committee members to take action and not, “just sit around and moan and groan” about the state of the prison system.
“The bottom line is that we need to do something about these prisons,” Dunn said.
Alabama prisons hold nearly twice the number of inmates they were originally designed to house. The Department of Corrections housed 24,282 inmates in December in facilities originally designed for 13,318, according to monthly statistics from the department.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press