Mat Su Prison Won't Get Start-up Funds

Anchorage Daily News
The huge Goose Creek prison in the Mat-Su won't open on time and a security company will have to be hired to keep people out of the empty prison, corrections officials said Thursday.
The new state operating budget about to be passed by the Legislature doesn't have enough money to enact a start-up plan that would open the facility next spring with a batch of 30 prisoners, said Shalon Harrington, the legislative liaison for the Alaska Department of Corrections.
She said the shortfall also throws into question the date that the prison might be fully operational.
"Right now we just have to take a few steps back and re-evaluate the entire situation," she said.
The $240 million Goose Creek prison is being built at Point MacKenzie across Knik Arm from Anchorage. The project has been under heavy pressure after the Senate Finance Committee in March heard the expected costs of operating it.
A top senator even talked about just mothballing it and dropping the plan to bring back 1,000 Alaska inmates who are being housed in a Colorado private prison.
The corrections department asked the Legislature for $3.6 million to ramp up operations. The Senate voted to give no money, saying there are too many questions. The House wanted to provide the entire amount sought by corrections officials.