February 22, 2006

Dear Editor:

Your February 20 editorial, "Learn from past mistakes," concerns Senate Bill 175 and the possibility that Utah may utilize a public-private correctional partnership to meet its increasing need for prison bed space. While we are learning from the past, let us remember to evaluate the facts about the private corrections industry, as it exists today.

• The Abt Associates Study, funded by the Department of Justice, found that the private operator of the Taft Federal Correctional Institution met every contractual requirement and did exactly what it said it would do.
• In 2002, a Florida study revealed that rehabilitation programs provided by the private operator were significantly more sophisticated than those made available to prisoners in a comparable state prison.
• The Reason Public Policy Institute issued an independent 2002 report which found that 61% of the private prison research surveys conducted that year concluded that the private operations were as good as or better than comparable publicly-managed facilities at providing services.
• 44 privately-run facilitiesare accredited, while only 10 publicly-operated facilities meet this same standard.
• The Allegheny Institute for Public Policy just issued a report about the private operation of the Delaware County Jail. The report indicated that prisoner assaults dropped dramatically, the Pennsylvania DOC rated the jail "excellent," and prisoner satisfaction with food quality increased significantly. The report also shows that the county saved $64 million over seven years by utilizing the services of the private provider.

A performance-based contract, coupled with the proper administrative oversight, can provide Utah with high-quality, cost-efficient corrections services from the private sector

Sincerely,
 

 
Michael LoBue, Executive Director
The Association of Private Correctional and Treatment Organizations
www.apcto.org

Article published Feb 20, 2006

Utah has one of the country's lowest incarceration rates, according to federal data, but is climbing from a booming population growth spurt that has increased the incarcerated population by 200 to 300 inmates each year.

The Utah prison system is overwhelmed with more than 6,350 inmates statewide - including a large percentage housed at Purgatory Correctional Facility in Washington County - making more bed space desperately needed.

Two facilities are being built, one in Gunnison and the other facility in Beaver County, where the state intends to rent 200 beds to house its inmates. Also, corrections is requesting another 192-bed facility to be built in Gunnison.

Senate Bill175, sponsored by Sen. Howard A. Stephenson, R-Draper, calls for the Department of Corrections to issue and evaluate a request for proposals from private prison contractors, county jails and other interested agencies for a 300-bed or larger minimum-security correctional facility to accommodate prison-sentenced criminals beyond that.

We commend Stephenson and the corrections department for their foresight in dealing with the rising housing needs of criminals. However, taxpayers should urge lawmakers to do some analysis as they embark on mingling public and private enterprise, based on the state's history in that corrections partnership.

Utah's first privately run prison, Promontory Correctional Facility - a 400-bed, low-security facility located on the northwest side of the Draper prison site, which was closed because of budget cuts - was administered by Ogden's Management and Training Corporation. Three weeks after it opened in August, 1995, two inmates escaped in broad daylight by crawling through a fence. Every year until it closed on July 1, 2002, there were one to two escapes.

A pre-release program through that facility resulted in 102 parolees enrolled in it simply walking away within a 10-month period. One in particular was by 35-year-old Stan Lee Foster, a man convicted for a string of thefts and burglaries in Southern Utah. He was enrolled in the "cutting edge" halfway-back program in May 1999, but two months later hopped onto a bus in Sandy to go to work never to return. Six days after he walked away, he was fatally shot by an FBI agent investigating a rash of bank robberies.

Aside from budget cuts that were cited for the closure of the prison, heavily-rumored high staff turnover rates and drug use by inmates were disclosed by media outlets. The mixture of the public and private sector of corrections through Promontory lasted a mere seven years.

As SB-175 mandates the acceptance of bids for a new facility, and is considering recommendations from corrections to highly consider privatization for housing and treatment, we ask lawmakers to scrutinize the whole package privatization has to offer with a fine-tooth comb.

While it is admirable to be looking toward the future to accommodate the increasing incarcerated population, it is just as important to learn from mistakes where failures occurred so as not to repeat them.