Open, and closed, for business

MAT-SU — The state Senate voted Friday not to provide funding to open the Goose Creek Correctional Center at Point MacKenzie.

The move to put $3.6 million for opening the prison back into the Department of Corrections’ budget made it to the Senate floor by way of an amendment from Sen. Charlie Huggins, R-Wasilla.

“We built a prison. So now the question is how do we efficiently open it? This debate isn’t about whether we like the prison or any of those sorts of things, we have one,” Huggins said, according to audio recordings of the session.

The prison has lately been the subject of some controversy in the Senate, where elected officials have pointed out that it will cost more to run the facility than it currently costs the state to house about 1,000 inmates in the Lower 48. Bringing those inmates home was one of the stated objectives of building the facility.

The Mat-Su Borough is building the prison and will lease it back to the state which, at the end of the lease, will own the facility.

The move to de-fund the prison’s opening came to light last month when the Senate’s prisons subcommittee voted to recommend holding the money back. Though the full Senate voted 15-5 to reject Huggins’ move Friday, the state House of Representatives approved the money. That sort of difference is usually reconciled at the end of the legislative session.

Huggins said that the funding will be used to move a small group of prisoners and guards into the building in order to, as he put it, “validate the warranty.” Essentially, the guards and inmates would be making sure everything works — lighting, heating, sewers, pipes. If that work isn’t done, Huggins said, it could cause problems later.

“In a year from now we’ll say, ‘golly, I wish we’d checked those faucets a little closer,’” he said.

Sen. Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, sided with Huggins, though somewhat reluctantly.

“I was very uneasy when we approved this project a few years ago and I anticipated that there was going to be significant cost overruns and I’m sorry to be right,” Dyson said. “But … this is not the point at which to stop this process.”

Sen. Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage, who chairs the subcommittee that recommended defunding the opening, said that far from not being the time to hold back money, it was inappropriate to spend it.

“I believe legislative audit is warranted,” Ellis said. “Until such an audit is completed, I believe it’s premature to approve the funding for the opening of the facility.”

One of the things senators are seeking to find out in an audit is whether the project exceeded the funding allotment put in place when the legislature authorized its construction. Huggins said that Mat-Su was allotted $11,600 per prison bed. Anchorage, Seward or Fairbanks could have entered a similar agreement to build a prison for $14,600 a bed. Bethel could have done it for $16,700. None of those other communities has taken the state up on the offer.

“Though some would call it an arguable point, the per-bed cause for Goose Creek appeared to have violated what was authorized by the Legislature,” Ellis said. “The relatively remote and undeveloped location chosen for the facility appears to be a significant driver in the increased costs for the state.”

Huggins said he would argue with that point. He doesn’t believe the prison exceeded those costs. But he doesn’t dispute that building and running a prison here costs more than housing inmates in Colorado.

“It costs more. We know that it costs more to do things in Alaska,” he said.

He brought up a number of benefits to the state if Goose Creek opened. He noted that state prison currently buys $70,000 worth of locally grown fruits and vegetables each year. That figure is expected to double if Goose Creek opens. He noted that a number of corrections officers commute long distances. He said 49 in his district commute to Seward to work at Spring Creek Correctional Center. Goose Creek would save them the drive — which, he noted, means those corrections officers cross through two or three stretches of road deemed so dangerous they’ve been designated Highway Safety Corridors.

And, probably most significantly, Huggins said, Goose Creek will be the state’s largest prison with an employment roster larger than the two next largest facilities combined. More than 340 people will be employed there.

“We as Alaskans say hire Alaskans. What we’re doing today with these 1,000-plus (inmates) is we’re hiring Coloradoans,” Huggins said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.