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Arizona Prison Privatization Overview

Arizona Prison Privatization Overview

May 2010

There are currently eleven privately operated prisons located in the state of Arizona that we are aware of.  Five are contracted with the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) to hold Arizona prisoners, while the other six are operated by Corrections Corporation of America and are contracted with federal bureaus and other states.  The state has also contracted with a private prison facility to house Arizona prisoners in Oklahoma.  This report does not include information on privately operated county jails, tribal facilities, juvenile facilities, or immigrant detention centers in Arizona, although there are a substantial number of these.  The following is a summary of the basic information about each facility, beginning with those contracted with ADC.

Privately Operated prisons located in Arizona housing Arizona prisoners

The state of Arizona pays two private, for-profit corporations to house Arizona prisoners in five facilities located in the state of Arizona. 

Marana Community Correctional Treatment Facility

Location:  Marana, AZ

Operated by:  Management and Training Corporation, Ogden Utah

Contracted with:  Arizona Department of Corrections

Security level:  Minimum

Capacity:  450

Population:  Adult male offenders who have demonstrated a need for substance or alcohol abuse intervention.

Arizona State Prison—Kingman

Location:  Kingman, AZ

Operated by:  Management and Training Corporation, Ogden Utah

Contracted with:  Arizona Department of Corrections

Security level:  Minimum/Medium

Capacity:  1,508 (Currently under construction adding 2,000 additional beds)

Population:  Adult male offenders who have demonstrated a need for substance or alcohol abuse intervention.

Arizona State Prison—Phoenix West

Location:  Phoenix, AZ

Operated by:  GEO Group, Boca Raton, Fla

Contracted with:  Arizona Department of Corrections

Opened:  April 1996

Security level:  2 (Low)

Capacity:  400

Population:  Adult males convicted of felony DUI.

Arizona State Prison—Florence West

Location:  Florence, AZ

Operated by:  GEO Group, Boca Raton, Fla

Contracted with:  Arizona Department of Corrections

Opened:  December 2006 (1996?)

Security level:  2 (Low)

Capacity:  750

Population:  Adult males convicted of DUI (500) and “Return To Custody” prisoners convicted of parole violations (250).

Arizona State Prison—Central Arizona Correctional Facility (CACF)

Location:  Florence, AZ

Operated by:  GEO Group, Boca Raton, Fla

Contracted with:  Arizona Department of Corrections

Opened:  December 2006

Security level:  Medium

Capacity:  1,000

Population:  Male sex offenders

Privately operated prisons housing Arizona prisoners in other states

Arizona also contracts with private, for-profit prison corporations to house our prisoners in their facilities located in other states.

Great Plains Correctional Facility

Location:  Hinton, OK

Operated by:  Cornell Companies, Houston, TX

Opened:  September, 2007

Security level:  Minimum/Medium

Capacity:  916

Population:  Male offenders

Privately operated prisons located in Arizona that do NOT house AZ prisoners (exclusively)

Yes, there are private prisons located in AZ that have no dealings with the Arizona Department of Corrections.  They typically contract with the federal government (Immigration, Federal Marshalls) or other states’ departments of corrections (Alaska, Hawaii) to house their prisoners here.  All of these facilities are operated by Corrections Corporation of America, and all are located in Pinal County (Florence and Eloy areas).  The Arizona Daily Star, at the opening of Red Rock Correctional Center, remarked that Tennessee-based CCA is now the town of Eloy’s largest employer.

You can visit CCA’s website for facility information:  http://www.correctionscorp.com/facilities/?state=AZ

There is currently no state oversight over these prisons.  They are not obligated to report what types of prisoners they are incarcerating.  They do not have to alert local authorities when there are disturbances or riots in their prisons.  They do not have to make public the records of their costs, employment rates, or operations the way government run facilities do.

Central Arizona Detention Center, Florence, AZ

Operated by:  Corrections Corporation of America, Nashville, TN

Contracted with:  US Marshals Service, INS, State of Hawaii

Security level:  Multi-level

Capacity:  2,304

Population:  Adult males

Ethnic distribution:  Unavailable

Eloy Detention Center, Eloy, AZ

Operated by:  Corrections Corporation of America

Contracted with:  Federal Bureau of Prisons and INS

Security level:  Low

Capacity:  1,500

Population:  Adult males

Ethnic distribution:  Unavailable

Florence Correctional Center, Florence, AZ

Operated by:  Corrections Corporation of America

Contracted with:  US Marshals Service, State of California, INS, State of Washington

Security level:  Medium

Capacity:  1,600

Population:  Adult men and women

Ethnic distribution:  Roughly equal populations of Native Americans from Alaska and Samoans and other pacific islanders from Hawaii.

La Palma Correctional Center, Eloy Arizona

Operated by:  Corrections Corporation of America

Contracted with:  California Dept of Corrections

Security level:  Not provided on webpage

Capacity:  3,060

Population:  Adult men

Opened:  June 2008

Red Rock Correctional Center, Eloy, AZ

Operated by:  Corrections Corporation of America

Contracted with:  Prisoner population no longer listed on CCA webpage.  Formerly listed as:  State of Hawaii, Alaska, Washington.

Security level:  Medium

Capacity:  1,500:  870 from Hawaii, 630 from AK

Opened:  2006

Saguaro Correctional Center, Eloy, AZ

Operated by:  Corrections Corporation of America

Contracted with:  State of Hawaii

Security level:  Medium

Capacity:  1,896

Opened:  2007

State Budget Expenditures on Private Prisons

According to the Arizona Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC)’s baseline 2011 budget, the state will spend over one BILLION dollars on the Department of Corrections next year.  Expenditures on privatized units comprise 58% of the entire Corrections budget.  (http://www.azleg.gov/jlbc/11book1/adc.pdf)

Total corrections budget for 2011                   $1,091,035,000

New state prison beds (to be privately operated):                $74,165,800

Per diems paid to private prison operators:                          $133,442,000

Provisional (out of state) private beds:                                      $42,832,900

TOTAL PRIVATE                                                    $635,936,800

For more information or to get involved, contact:

American Friends Service Committee—Arizona

103 N. Park, Ste 111

Tucson, AZ  85719

(520) 623-9141

afscaz@afsc.org

www.afsc.org/tucson