Private Firms Talk Again on Building Treatment Facility
Posted on: Friday, 20 January 2006, 18:00 CST
By Shawna Gamache, The Idaho Statesman, Boise
Jan. 20--House lawmakers heard from two out-of-state companies Thursday on the merits of letting the companies build and run a 400-bed drug treatment facility for the state.
The governor has requested $8.2 million to assist with private construction and management of the facility, with $1.5 million in initial costs this year. That money still needs legislative approval before bidding for the project can begin.
But Florida's CentraCorp Properties Trust and New Jersey-based Community Education Centers Inc. have already met with the Department of Correction twice to provide information for the project, according to Correction Director Tom Beauclair. The department also heard from Florida's GEO Group about running the facility.
"The state has a bureaucracy with a lot of different processes they go through," said Beauclair of the disadvantages of a state-built and operated enterprise. "I'm most interested to get it up and running as quickly as we can to deal with some of these overcrowding issues."
CentraCorp, formerly known as Correctional Properties Trust, has about $200 million to help purchase or finance the facility, according to The Associated Press, and CEC wants to run it. The companies have worked together on other projects, according to Chuck Jones, CEO of CentraCorp.
"There is a need for innovative solutions to address not only the overcrowding but the recidivism rate," Jones told members of the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee. "There is a critical need for anywhere from 500 to 1,000 beds here in Idaho."
Beauclair told the committee that overcrowding of his prison system has led to insufficient drug treatment options.
"For every five people who need treatment, we have two spots," he said.
He said the companies could get the facility up and running in six to 10 months.
Lewiston is a possible site for the facility, according to Beauclair, and the facility is estimated to cost about $48 a day per prisoner, including building costs. That is about the same as the state's prisons cost per inmate, and about $5 cheaper a day per prisoner than sending them out of state.
Once the program starts working, it will decrease costs as it reduces the number of reoffending drug abusers, Beauclair said. Committee Chairwoman Debbie Field, R-Boise, agreed.
"The reason we got interested in this is because in New Jersey they actually closed a prison as a result of this," said Field on why she had asked the companies to present.
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Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise
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