New prison may be built

November 22, 2005

DARRELL L. BREESE/Frontiersman reporter

ANCHORAGE - Mat-Su Borough officials met Wednesday with representatives from Gov. Frank Murkowski office and the Alaska Department of Corrections to discuss plans for building a new prison in the borough.

Borough officials and state Sen. Lyda Green, a Wasilla Republican who has backed the plan to expand the number of prison beds, encouraged Gov. Murkowski and state corrections officials to move forward with plans to build a new facility in the Valley.

The Legislature in 2004 gave the state authority to enter into a lease-purchase agreement with the borough in order to build a new prison that can accommodate up to 2,250 inmates. If constructed, the new facility will address overcrowding issues and the need to contract for approximately 750 beds at a private contract prison in Arizona.

Borough officials traveled to Anchorage for the meeting to determine what the next step in the process should be for the proposed construction of a new prison in the borough.

According to Borough Mayor Tim Anderson, concerns of shipping prisoners from Alaska to a private prison in Arizona led to the determination that there was a need to construct a new facility somewhere in the state. He believes the Mat-Su Borough is the perfect place for it.

A 2004 U.S. Justice Department study of prison trends across the country, released last month, shows more than 30 percent of Alaska's prison inmates were serving their time in private facilities - the second-highest rate of private prison incarceration in the country.

Just about all of those inmates are sent to Arizona, said Alaska Corrections Department spokesman Richard Schmitz.

&#8220We're about at capacity at all units,” Schmitz said.

Excluding the inmates held in private institutions, the Justice Department study showed Alaska prisons at 101 percent of capacity in 2004.

Only New Mexico had a higher percentage of its inmates in private prisons, sending about 42 percent to contract facilities.

In a letter to the governor, Green encouraged the state take immediate action and move forward with the plans to build a new facility in the borough to help alleviate the burden caused by shipping inmates to a private prison in Arizona.

She stated that the prisoner population for the state averaged 108 percent of capacity for the month of October, adding that so far this year, 38 percent of the state's long-term prisoners are currently being held in Arizona, up from the number cited in the 2004 Justice Department study.

&#8220Given the alarming data, I can only hope that you realize the high priority with which we need to address this issue,” Green wrote. &#8220Please take action now to resolve the problem before our citizens' safety is diminished and while we have the resources. There is no longer an excuse for delaying the expansion of the correctional facility system in our state.”

There is a need for an increase in prison capacity in the state, officials agree, but what still has to be determined is how to finance such a facility, and who will pay for it.

&#8220Right now we are discussing where the prison should be,” Anderson said. &#8220One possibility is an expansion of the Palmer Correctional Facility, but we are also considering other possible locations. Point MacKenzie, of course, is always considered because of its remote location. But nothing is settled yet.”

&#8220Whether it's the state or borough selling the bonds or having a private party handle the sale has to be determined,” Anderson said.

A spokesman from the governor's office said the governor sees a need for a new detention facility and is evaluating the borough's proposal. The governor reportedly doesn't want to compromise the state bond rating in order to build a prison.

An economic impact statement completed by the borough in June estimated that the cost of building a new facility would be nearly $220 million and that the annual operating cost would be $60 million.

The study also estimated that $143 million, 65 percent of the construction cost, would be spent in Mat-Su and result in approximately 2,000 jobs (in both the construction and retail industry).

When completed, the prison is projected to generate about $47 million in new earnings annually for the borough.

&#8220This is an opportunity

for an economic windfall

for the borough,” Anderson said. &#8220It will meet a growing need, but it will also

create new jobs, new homeowners and be a boost to the community.”

Contact Darrell L. Breese

at 352-2267 or darrell.breese@ frontiersman.com.