The Cost of Private Prisons

Colorado currently has 480 people who have been transferred to Oklahoma in a move to reduce overcrowding in our prisons. The issue is explosive as Oklahoma may be preparing to take on people from other states as well. The riot at Crowley should have taught us this lesson of the danger of importing human beings like commodities. We have heard from prisoners and their families that the stress level is already high there.

With GEO and Cornell both hovering over the state in a an effort to build private prisons here, we have to assess the necessity for new prisons when efforts to reduce the recidivism rate would give us a much better rate of return. Building re-entry centers closer to communities where people live and work would allow us to address the issues that have simply been ignored, overlooked, or underfunded. We need to be creative and willing to work harder to re-integrate people back into their lives or else we will never get out of the spiral of recidivism.

Indiana Riot: The Cost of Importing People

Indiana signed an agreement last month to house Arizona prisoners at the privately managed prison in New Castle. The first 104 prisoners arrived March 12; 1,200 were expected altogether. About 600 have arrived so far.

• Indiana's end of the deal: Indiana is to receive an average of $64 per prisoner per day from Arizona. The one-year contract is supposed to generate $6.1 million in revenue for Indiana and can be terminated at any time if Indiana needs the space for in-state offenders. Gov. Mitch Daniels said the agreement would create 230 jobs at the facility.

• Arizona's end: The state has about 36,000 people incarcerated, roughly 5,000 more than the system is designed to hold, according to Katie Decker, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Corrections. The state's prison population could grow by more than a third by the end of 2011, according to a report released this year by the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts.

• Other details: Arizona prisoners were to be kept separate from Indiana inmates. Only medium- to minimum-security adult inmates were to be sent to Indiana -- those who had committed crimes such as burglary, robbery and aggravated assault. Not to be transferred: inmates classified as high-risk offenders, sex offenders or those with escape histories or recent history of prison disciplinary action.

ABOUT NEW CASTLE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY
• Established: 2002.
• Security level: Medium.
• Capacity: 2,416.
• Inmates: A total of 1,668 inmates, including the Arizona inmates, live at the prison.
• Housing: Dormitories.
• Management: It's state-owned but privately managed by The GEO Group, a Florida-based company. It is the only prison in the state that is privately managed.

The riot Tuesday at the New Castle Correctional Facility is the latest uprising involving prisoners moved from one state to another.

Since 2000, at least five similar riots have taken place in other states:

• September 2004: Inmates at the Lee Adjustment Center, a private prison in Beattyville, Ky., burned the facility's administration building and caused extensive damage to a dorm during a riot. Twenty-six inmates -- 15 from Vermont and 11 from Kentucky -- faced charges. The riot occurred after several hundred Vermont inmates were added to the prison.

• July 2004: A riot occurred at the $47 million Crowley County Correctional Facility in Colorado shortly after the arrival of new inmates from Washington state. Thirteen inmates needed treatment, including one with a severe stab wound, but no one was killed.

• May 2004: More than 500 Arizona inmates rioted at the Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, Okla., a private prison where more than 1,200 Arizona inmates were being housed because of crowding at state facilities. The riot lasted several hours, and dozens of inmates were injured.

•January 2003: An uprising by 82 Arizona inmates at a private prison in Texas caused $15,000 in damage. Inmates flooded dorms, tore up mattresses, destroyed TV sets and broke windows at the Newton County Correctional Center.

• September 2000: As many as 20 inmates from Hawaii smashed windows, computers and TV sets at an Arizona prison after an inmate complained about the way his rice was cooked. Three people were injured, including a guard, who was captured and assaulted. Indy Star Article