ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 12, 1996 TAG: 9607120049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: LAURA laFAY STAFF WRITER
CONSTRUCTION IS SET to begin today on a prison with an annual cost of $12,500 per inmate, instead of the $17,000 the state spends.
Construction will begin in Brunswick County today on the first private prison in Virginia.
The prison, a 1,500-bed medium-security institution, will be built and operated by Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America near Lawrenceville. CCA bought Corrections Partners Inc., the Kansas company that made the original bid on the project, after CCA's bid to build a prison in Wythe County lost out.
Financed with tax-exempt bonds issued by the Brunswick Industrial Development Authority, the facility will cost the state $44 million over 20 years. Construction is expected to be completed by December 1997.
"What this means to the people of Virginia is there are going to be inmates in cells where they're supposed to be instead of out terrorizing the neighborhoods," CCA President David Meyers said at a press conference at the Department of Corrections Thursday.
CCA manages 45 prisons housing some 31,000 prisoners in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia.
Founded in 1983, the company has experienced huge growth and seen its profits soar because of harsher penalties and longer sentences. On Dec. 30, 1994, one share of the company's stock sold for about $16. It hit a high of $84.88 on May 23. Stock prices have escalated so quickly that the company has split its stock twice since October. A share now trades at $31.25.
Virginia is one of 18 states that have passed legislation allowing for private prisons. Thirty-four others are considering following suit.
In Virginia on Thursday, bureaucrats clapped, television cameras rolled and Brunswick County officials looked on as Myers and Department of Corrections Director Ron Angelone approached a long conference table to sign the contract for the prison. The contract calls for a five-year operation agreement at a cost of $12,500 per inmate.
Currently, Virginia pays an average of $17,000 per year to house an inmate in a state prison, said David Botkins, the Corrections Department's director of communications.
CCA can run prisons more cheaply than state government can, Myers said, because "we're not a bureaucracy. There's built-in safeguards in any bureaucracy, and you pay for that."
In Brunswick County, where the unemployment rate is about 7 percent, the new prison is expected to create 324 jobs. The county already has one state prison - Brunswick Correctional Center - which has 429 employees.
"We've lived very well with one facility. Another doesn't seem to make much difference," said Brunswick County Supervisor Ann Daniel.
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