Mary Katherine Wildeman

The Republic | azcentral.com

An Arizona Department of Corrections plan for the state to buy a private Kingman prison by refinancing the building debt was approved Thursday despite concerns that the agreement will return roughly $2 million in savings to the operator.

The operator, GEO Group, will be required to use the savings to increase pay for correctional officers at the Kingman facility.

The plan was given the green light Thursday by the Arizona Legislature's Joint Committee on Capital Review.

It should save the state $8.7 million annually, $1.9 million of which has not yet been allocated for any specific use. The heart of the proposal met little opposition, but two legislators complained of giving state money to a private operator to pay its own correctional officers.

GEO Group in late April reported a profit of $32.4 million for the first quarter of 2016, a 12.5 percent increase from the year before.

“It sounds like they’ve made a decision to keep their profits instead of pay ... what it takes to reduce their turnover,” said Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson. “That’s a business problem for them that we are not under any obligation to solve.

"We're bailing them out and helping to support a corporate strategy to pay their people peanuts."

Rep. Eric Meyer, D-Paradise Valley, also made a point to mention that GEO Group’s CEO took a $2.3 million pay raise last year.

Corrections representatives said increasing officer wages will reduce Kingman turnover, which stands at 25 percent. The state Corrections Department reported its turnover rate at 14 percent.

“From a public-safety standpoint, I think it is a better decision to try and keep as many of those positions filled and their salaries more competitive rather than operating with a higher vacancy rate,” said Corrections Director Charles Ryan.

The $2 million allocated to GEO Group from the refinancing would increase correctional officers’ average pay to $33,300. By comparison, state correctional officers’ average pay is $36,800.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a national average salary of $45,320 for correctional officers and jailers as of May 2015.

Ryan said he has for three years proposed a plan to use about $22 million to increase state correctional officer wages by 5 percent. The plan has been rejected by the Arizona Legislature. Ryan said he plans to propose a wage increase for state correctional officers in coming sessions.

Meyer was happy with the refinancing plan, but remained troubled over spending state money to increase a publicly traded company’s employee wages.

“They’re squeezing profits out of these prisons by understaffing them,” he said. “Now they’re asking us to step up to the plate so that they can keep their profits high.”