January 11, 2006

Dear Editor:

Lawrence Messina, in his article "New prison needed in West Virginia, officials say," quotes Norb Federspiel, Director of the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety as saying "There is no consensus literature citing the merits or disadvantages of private prisons." I must respectfully disagree. Your readers and the state legislature should consider the following:

• An Abt Associates report, funded by the Department of Justice last year, concluded that private operation of a 2,084-bed federal facility actually saved the taxpayer between 6% and 10% as compared with public operation of the facility over the 5-year period of the study.
• A 2004 Vanderbilt University Study found that operating costs at private prisons are "on average 5% to 20% lower than public prisons."
• The same Vanderbilt study showed that in states where at least 20% of the prison beds were provided by private operators, the corrections budgets for operation of the public beds increased threefold in states that had no private beds.
• Both studies found that private operation offered a high quality of service and a significant level of accountability to the contracting agency.
• Finally, an article appearing in the Harvard Law Review in May 2002 reported that 61% of reputable qualitative studies "found services at private prisons equal or better than their public counterparts."

Public-private correctional partnerships offer new sources of capital, reduced construction costs, faster bed availability, lower operating costs, measurable quality, and substantial accountability. West Virginia should consider making these partnerships a part of the corrections landscape.

Sincerely,
 

 
Michael T. LoBue, CAE
Executive Director

January 9, 2006

The Associated Press - Monday, January 09, 2006

West Virginia needs a new 1,200-bed prison to ease crowding in its corrections system, and should not rule out having it privately built and run, state officials said.

Lawmakers were also advised to fund three 48- bed work camps to house the state's leas dangerous prisoners, in the report issued to joint interim committees by the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety.

The camps would cost $1.2 million each, while the new prison would cost between $105 million and $120 million, said Norb Federspiel, director of the Division of Criminal Justice Services.

The report further recommended sentencing third-offense drunken driving offenders to the state's regional jails instead of prisons, though those felons would continue to serve terms of up to three years.

"I know this would mean a big policy change. Felonies usually go to prison and misdemeanors to jail," said Federspiel, representing MAPS Secretary Jim Spears at the meeting. "It's a change in philosophy, but it's something you need to look at."

West Virginia has one of the nation's smallest inmate populations, per capita, but its rate of growth is among the most rapid, state and federal officials say.

The Mountain State counted 272 imprisoned felons for every 100,000 residents in 2004, according to the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics. Only 10 states had a lower incarceration rate that year. The national average is 486 inmates per 100,000 residents.

But West Virginia ranked 3rd for the growth of its state prisoner Charleston Daily Mail population between 1995 and last year. Its incarceration rate rose by 73.3 percent during that time, while the national rate grew by less than 13 percent.

The increase has left the Division of Corrections with 5,312 felons sentenced to prison as of Dec. 30, but only 4,159 prison beds. The difference leaves 1,276 felons serving their sentences in the state's regional jails.

While the state plans to add 728 beds to the system by January 2007, including 592 for men, the report cites estimates that corrections will have more than 6,000 inmates by 2010.

Finding the money would be the biggest obstacle to adding a prison, and the needed staff, the report said. Contracting with a private prison company brings its own drawbacks, even if the prison is built with private funds, Federspiel noted.

"There is no consensus literature citing the merits or disadvantages of private prisons," he said. "And in terms of liability, you can have all the nice little clauses to hold the state harmless, but you're still on the hook for these people."

The reports' other recommendations include increased funding for community corrections, greater use of probation and home confinement and beefing up the ranks and pay of parole officers.

The report does not recommend that West Virginia send inmates out-of state, as that measure would require a constitutional amendment.