THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 12, 1996 TAG: 9607120500
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LAFAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 54 lines
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 the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America.
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 L. Meyers said at the Department of Corrections Thursday.
CCA manages 45 prisons housing about 31,000 prisoners in the United States, Great Britain, Australia and Puerto Rico.
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 has passed legislation allowing for the privatization of 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 state corrections boss 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 inmate per year to house an inmate in a state prison, said David Botkins, DOC Director of Communications.
CCA can run prisons more cheaply than state government, 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 - The Brunswick Correctional Center - which has 429 employees.
``We've lived very well with one facility. Another doesn't seem to make much difference,'' Brunswick County Supervisor Ann Daniel said.
The Virginia General Assembly last year authorized the construction of 3,500 private prison beds. Negotiations are also under way with another company, the Florida-based Wackenhut Corrections Inc., for a second private prison in Charlotte County.
Plans for a third private facility are ``very premature and pending,'' Botkins said.
KEYWORDS: PRISON CONSTRUCTION by CNB