AZ Private prison Bids in: March 2011

This is actually old news...all these prison profiteers are horrible - especially CCA. Just Google their abuses in Eloy this past year. We need the legislature to order some kind of oversight committee for these private prison, folks...

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Prison bids are in; Emerald Corrections bids to build in Globe

Modified: Friday, Mar 4th, 2011
Arizona Silver Belt
BY: Holly Sow/Staff Reporter

PHOENIX — Five bidders have submitted proposals to the Arizona Department of Corrections to build and manage private prisons to be contracted with the state of Arizona. Last month, a second, revised Request for Proposals for 5,000 beds to be contracted out through privately-run correctional facilities was announced by the ADOC. The RFP closed on Thursday, Feb. 24 at 3 p.m. with five companies making bids, one more than during the first round of bids, which was cancelled after three convicted murderers escaped from a private prison in Kingman on July 30, 2010.

According to the DOC these bidders are:

- CCA (Correction Corporations of America), founded in 1983, is the largest private corrections company in America with more than 60 prisons in numerous states across America, of which the company owns 44 outright. Based out of Nashville, Tenn., CCA runs private prisons in Florence and Eloy in Arizona.

- GEO Group, Inc., founded in 1984 and based in Boca Raton, Fla., currently runs private prisons in both Phoenix and Florence and manages and/or owns 118 correctional, detention, and residential treatment facilities nationwide.

MTC (Management and Training Corporation), founded in 1981, is headquartered in Centerville, Utah. MTC holds 24 government contracts to operate correctional facilities in seven states, including the prison in Kingman, Ariz. from which three convicts escaped in July of last year, and a prison in Marana, Ariz. MTC is also a leading Job Corps management contractor with the U.S. Department of Labor at centers across the United States. MTC is the third largest operator of private adult correctional facilities.

Emerald Correctional Management, founded in 1996, with corporate headquarters in Lafayette, La., runs six private prisons in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and in San Luis, Ariz. Emerald is proposing to build a 1,000-bed medium-security prison near the Gila County Fairgrounds in Globe City limits.

LaSalle Southwest Corrections, founded in 1997, currently runs 10 private prisons in Texas and Louisiana. Company headquarters are located in Ruston, La. LaSalle did not bid in the first round of the RFP.

Although the bidding has now closed, no further information is being released by the DOC until the bids have been awarded. Before the bids are awarded state law requires the DOC to hold a public hearing at each/any of the chosen sites for a proposed prison. This meeting will be conducted by the DOC, giving the community the opportunity to voice their support or opposition and provide input.

The initial RFP was canceled on Sept. 1, 2010 over concerns raised about the design of privately operated prisons after a July 30 breakout of a private prison in Kingman made national headlines. Emerald Correctional Management submittted a proposal in the first round to build a private prison northeast of Globe on state land. According to representatives of the Southern Gila County Economic Development Corporation (EDC), which has supported the bid for a private prison in Globe in both RFPs, the original bid was for a 1,000-bed prison complex. To date no drawings of the proposed Globe prison complex, site plans or other documentation as to the size of the facility have been released to the Globe-Miami public by Emerald or the EDC.

Emerald Corrections currently runs six medium-security prisons at Epps, La. with a 732 inmate capacity; San Luis, Ariz. with a 450 inmate capacity; LaSalle County Regional Detention Center at Encinal, Texas with a 566 inmate capacity; Sierra Blanca, Texas with a 1,000 inmate capacity; Haskell, Texas with a 548 inmate capacity; and Carrizozo, N.M. with a 120 inmate capacity.