Some question $71 million annual cost for new prison

KNIK — State lawmakers are concerned about how much it’s going to cost to run the Goose Creek Correctional Center, and some are suggesting mothballing the building while others suggest bringing in a private contractor to run it.

The Mat-Su Borough, which is building the prison with the understanding it will be sold to the state and run by the Department of Corrections, has never given any indication it was over its budget. Construction is set to wrap up at the end of this year.

But it’s not so much the capital costs of building the facility that worry lawmakers as it is the operational costs of running the thing. Officials from DOC gave out a number of facts and figures, but three seem to stand out, at least to the legislators:

• Between running the facility and paying off the debt the borough incurred to build it, the state will pay $71 million for the prison each year.

• It costs $22 million to house Alaskan convicts in prisons out of state.

• The state estimates that to mothball the facility and only pay for the debt, heating, maintenance and a security detail to guard it would cost $22 million per year.

Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, said that even adding on an extra million to the cost of not opening the prison and keeping those inmates Outside, it seemed to him like a very poor deal.

“That’s $45 million,” Stedman said. “That’s still less than $71 million by a substantial amount.”

Cost of the prison has lately made the rounds of talk radio and other outlets where commentators seem to be scratching their heads over what makes sense here.

Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, jumped into the debate to say that short of mothballing the prison, the state and borough should look at the possibility of bringing in a private contractor to run it. He said he thought for that same $22 million figure a money making enterprise could make it work.

He was quick to point out that he wasn’t in the senate committee hearings and, though he’s read up on it, he’s not in the same position his colleagues in the Senate are.

“At some level I’m arm-chairing this, I’m not in there doing the work,” he said.

Keller said he thinks problems with the prison will get worked out and that he would like to see it open up at Point MacKenzie. He expects it would be a boon to the economy here. But even he was taken aback when he saw those figures come out.

“Frankly, it’s really frustrating to see that here again we’ve got the government really screwing things up,” he said.

Deputy Borough Mayor Ron Arvin was reticent to say much of anything about the hubbub. But he did seem to express optimism similar to Keller’s that the state will work the problems out.

“What I know to be true is the borough and the Department of Corrections, i.e. the state, have a good relationship and I look forward to the completion of the prison on time and under budget and that Alaskan prisoners can come back to Alaska and be closer to their families,” he said.

The Senate Finance Committee includes no members from the Mat-Su delegation. A number of them seemed particularly upset that the Department of Corrections seemed to be expending most of its efforts on Mat-Su when there were needs for more prison beds in other facilities in the state.

Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, had Fairbanks — where the prison is the oldest in the system — and Bethel — where the prison is wildly over capacity — at the top of his list.

“I know that you can probably multitask and work on more than one facility at a time?” Hoffman asked corrections commissioner Joe Schmidt. “Is that beyond the capabilities of the department?”

Schmidt answered that Bethel’s city council had expressed opposition to the prison expansion.

“When the community voted not to support it is when we left — not to say we’d never go back, but we did go up there and we did attempt to move forward with it,” he said.

And Fairbanks and Bethel are next on DOC’s list of places to build. He said that the goal in opening the Goose Creek Correctional Center is to bring prisoners home where they have better chances at rehabilitation.

Stedman also had harsh words for DOC with regard to a much-discussed plan to bring in a private contractor to provide sewer and water services to the new prison. He said he didn’t appreciate learning about it by reading the newspaper.

“We get up in the morning and we look at the paper and all of a sudden we see a cooked-up financial arrangement that should have been brought to the finance committee,” he said. “It is a concern of the appropriating powers of the Legislature to have creative financing going on. Some creative financing may be legal. Some of it may not. … But it’s not a very good public process.”

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