The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The bill does not place onerous restrictions on our private prisons. It merely keeps Arizona apace with other states. As both Department of Corrections chief Doris Schriro and Attorney General Terry Goddard have pointed out, Arizona's private facilities are far less regulated than their counterparts elsewhere.
The bill would prohibit private prisons from housing out-of-state convicts whose offenses equate to Class 1 or Class 2 felonies in Arizona (such as murderers), repeat escapees or persons infected with communicable diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis or hepatitis.
It would force the prisons to quickly tell the Department of Corrections about disturbances and allow DOC to investigate. The bill also gives the state the ability to fine private prisons for violations.
The 2008 bill has a few things going for it. For one, the legislation has bipartisan provenance. It was crafted by Gov. Janet Napolitano's office and was introduced by Sen. Robert Blendu, a Litchfield Park Republican.
Blendu has been a supporter of private prisons who bluntly summarized one rationale for passing the bill: "We cannot become the private-prison attraction for the child molesters of our country," referring to a provision that would ban the housing of sex offenders.
Another reason for optimism: The private prison industry last year made headlines that demonstrated it could use a little regulation.
• In September, two convicted murderers escaped from a private facility in Florence. One was caught within hours; the other roamed free for months.
• In April, Arizona inmates rioted at a private prison in Indiana. They were protesting their transfer to a facility thousands of miles from their loved ones. That's a common practice in the industry, though it hinders rehabilitation.
Not surprisingly, the people who run private prisons aren't happy with the regulation effort.
"If you change the rules of the game midstream, we are going to resist it because we invested based on current rules," a senior vice president for Corrections Corp. of America, which runs five prisons in the state, told The Arizona Republic.
That statement substantiates one of the prime criticisms of private prisons: That they're more interested in protecting what they have "invested" in than they are in the public good.
The state has cast its lot with private prisons because they supposedly can do the job more efficiently than can government.
Arizonans should have the right, through the passage of SB 1142, to ensure that this is the case and that their tax dollars are being spent wisely and to ensure their safety.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/76351.php