The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Kimbrough said various lock-ups already account for 1,650 direct jobs in Marianna, Sneads and other communities, with hundreds more in businesses depending on the prisons. The new 1,500-bed Graceville Correctional Facility will add 314 jobs immediately, including 199 for guards, with 384 more cell spaces planned - making it the largest of six for-profit prisons in the state.

The prison is operated by the GEO Group of Boca Raton, which runs two other prisons in Florida. GEO's three-year, $61 million contract calls for a basic daily rate of $42.74 per inmate, up to 90-percent capacity, and $8 per man after that. That's $9.33 a day cheaper, on average, than the Department of Corrections per-inmate cost.

David Murrell, executive director of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, said in Tallahassee that privatized prisons are an economic boon for small, rural counties - but that state-run institutions give a bigger bang. The PBA, which represents officers in state-run institutions, calculates that employees it represents make about 10 percent more than those in private prisons, which are required by law to operate 7 percent cheaper than DOC prisons.

''The pay is a great deal better in state institutions and the jobs are more stable,'' said Murrell.

Warden Bill Willingham said GEO starts guards at $12.10 an hour, plus $1,450 in training costs for them to become certified correctional officers. He said the company pays $30,630 a year for certified officers, to start.

He said about 99 percent of the prison's jobs are filled. Prisoners are scheduled to start arriving next week.

John Hurley, GEO's vice president for North American operations, said his prison will meet DOC standards of rehabilitation programs as well as security for a wide range of offenders. He said it will be a safe and humane institution.

''We have an obligation to provide a very safe, secure and orderly facility,'' he said at ceremonies following a ribbon-cutting. ''We have a responsibility to see that the inmates committed to our custody come here as punishment, not for punishment.''

Mayor Charles Holman and state Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, said the county and city tried for 13 years to get a big prison. They credited former state Rep. Jamey Westbrook, D-Bascom, and Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, along with former House Speaker Allen Bense, R-Panama City, and the late Rep. David Coley, the current lawmaker's husband, for promoting the prison industry in the region.

Holman said the sprawling GEO facility is bigger than all previous corrections installations in the town's industrial park.

''We're not on the Interstate; we don't have the tourist attractions; there are no military installations,'' he said. ''This is good, clean industry. We want 'em.''

''It's certainly unfortunate that we need prisons,'' Coley said. ''But as long as we have individuals who won't obey the law, prisons will be built. So we might as well have them right here in Jackson County.''
http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070918/NEWS01/709180
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