As the August 31st deadline for award of a new private prison contract draws near, there’s been a healthy public debate as to the justification (or lack thereof) of the state’s plan for up to 2,000 more medium security prison beds.

Last week, Tucson Citizen Editor Mark Evans asked the $17 million question: “Private prisons are not saving us money–so why do we still have them?”

Then, Craig Harris of the Arizona Republic put out an excellent and comprehensive analysis...

(more...)

State Legislator Chad Campbell (D-14) sent a letter two weeks ago to Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne requesting an investigation into the state’s current contracts with private, for-profit prison corporations. The letter relies heavily on the findings in AFSC’s recent report on the for-profit prison industry in Arizona, Private Prisons: The Public’s Problem.

In the letter, Campbell cites alleged violations of:

• State law and individual contract provisions requiring propos...

(more...)

In Part I, we revealed that state officials have known for some time that proposed for-profit prisons will not save the state money. We referred to a state law, now partially repealed, that requires for-profit prison corporations to demonstrate cost savings during the competitive bidding process before a contract is awarded.

But once they’re built, the law does not provide any penalty for failure to actually save the state money. So in essence, the for-profit prison corporations can promise ...

(more...)

Documents recently obtained by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) show that the state of Arizona deliberately circumvented and ultimately repealed a state law requiring private for-profit prison corporations to demonstrate cost savings in their bids on new prison contracts. These records reveal that the state was aware that existing private prison contracts were not saving the state money–despite state laws requiring private prison contractors to deliver such savings.

One such s...

(more...)

Yesterday, the state legislature approved a compromise budget they negotiated with the Governor. 

The budget agreement would:

• Fund 500 state-run maximum security prison beds we don’t need
• Fund 1,000 private prison beds we don’t need
• Pay for these prison beds by stealing $50 million from a mortgage settlement that was intended to provide relief for victims of the foreclosure crisis
• Remove the requirement to study the quality and cost of public vs. private prisons

In his defense of her “d...

(more...)

This week The Nation features an editorial focused on the folly of private prisons in our infamous state of Arizona.  Sasha Abramsky, who has written extensively on criminal justice and prison privatization issues, exposes the hypocrisy of our legislators:  They say they want to save money and keep the public safe, but when faced with overwhelming evidence that our private prisons do neither of these things, their response is to eliminate the evidence.  Once again, Arizona is a national embar...

(more...)

In an unprecedented move, the American Friends Service Committee has filed a protest with the State Procurement Office over the Request for Proposals (RFP) issued by the Department of Corrections for 2,000 private, for-profit prison beds.

The AFSC was joined by the NAACP of Maricopa County in filing the protest.

The protest letter, sent to the Department of Corrections’ Chief Procurement Officer as well as the head of the Arizona State Procurement Office, argues that the state of Arizona does ...

(more...)