Ducey: Kingman riot won't change Arizona's appetite for private prisons - Today's News-Herald
Gubernatorial press aide Daniel Scarpinato acknowledged Monday that many questions were raised following the incident earlier this month at the privately-run facility. Scarpinato said Ducey is not interested in the alternative of having the state construct its own facilities which would then be run by the Department of Corrections with state employees. “Building a new facility would be very, very expensive in terms of up-front costs,’’ he said. Then there are the ongoing costs of staffing the facility, versus simply paying a per-inmate cost to private companies with a minimum guaranteed occupancy. Questions remain, however, whether private prisons make financial sense in the long run. In 2012 the Republican-controlled Legislature eliminated a requirement for the Department of Corrections to study the costs and benefits between public and private prisons. That came after a key House Democrat said one study that had been done shows it costs $5 a day more to house a medium-security inmate in a private prison than one run by the state. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, a major proponent of private prisons, called that study of “questionable reliability,’’ saying it did not consider issues like an underfunded pension system for corrections officers or even up-front construction... He said when legislative budget staffers retroactively factored those in, private prisons were. Source: www.havasunews.com
