In recent announcements touting the benefits of sending prisoners out of state to be housed in private prisons, the Dunleavy administration says the state will save millions of dollars over keeping them in-state. That’s a crock of hooey.

What they don’t want you to know is that it is an apples-to-oranges comparison of the first magnitude. Private prisons claim that their daily bed rate is cheaper than the state’s daily bed rate. And on the face of it, it does appear to be that way. But the big difference is, the state’s daily cost is an all-encompassing fee. The private prison’s rate is for the bed only. All of the other costs involved with housing prisoners are not included in the private prison’s bed rate. Those costs, which include but are not limited to meals, medical care, legal access, transportation and other incidental fees, are billed to the state separately from the daily bed rate. And further, those costs are buried in other budgets so that they never show up in any legitimate cost comparisons.

When all of the costs involved are considered, it will cost the state far more to house prisoners out of state in private facilities. This issue is not new, it’s the same as previous attempts to utilize private prisons.

And this only addresses the direct costs. It does not address the social costs of having prisoners attend a “criminal college” and come back as gang members. It doesn’t address the issues of prisoner access to the courts. How do you do an effective appeal from 3,000 miles away? It doesn’t address the lack of visitation by families. Studies have shown that rehabilitation only comes when there is a strong family support system in place, and how do you do that from 3,000 miles away?

The public needs to be aware of all the costs involved in housing prisoners in private prisons so that they can make an intelligent decision. This is from a retired state corrections officer who spent 22 years working at Spring Creek Correctional Center, a facility that was, like Goose Creek Correctional Center, built as a response to previous lawsuits to bring our prisoners back to Alaska from private prisons. How many more times must we repeat this folly?

— John Klapproth

Anchorage