Alabama is looking for companies to build three prisons and lease them to the state.

Five companies have told the state they are qualified for the work. Several are well known and offer a lot of information on their websites.

Information was scarce for the other two.

On Monday, Gov. Kay Ivey’s office released the names of companies that filed statements of qualifications with the Alabama Department of Corrections but did not release any other information. The governor’s office referred questions to the ADOC.

Today, the ADOC said it would not release any information from the statements of qualifications, saying it gave that assurance to companies when it requested their statements.

“Integrity and fairness has been, and will continue to be, of the utmost importance throughout the procurement process," the statement said. "The Request for Qualifications assures competing developers that ‘any information received in response to the solicitation/request will not be publicly available until final contract(s) has received all approvals.’

"To protect the integrity of the competitive selection process and to avoid inviting outside influence or legal challenges, the Alabama Department of Corrections cannot release information contained in the respondents’ Statements of Qualifications.”

In a press release on Monday, the governor’s office said the ADOC, the Alabama Building Commission, and the Alabama Department of Finance, with support from contractors Hoar Program Management and CGL, will evaluate the statements of qualifications from the five companies and determine which ones are qualified to bid on the projects.

Here’s some information about the five.

-- The Geo Group, Inc. manages and/or owns 133 secure correctional facilities, including the Alabama Therapeutic Education Facility in Columbiana, which is affiliated with the ADOC.

-- Corvias, LLC, is based in East Greenwich, R.I. The Alabama Secretary of State’s website lists 10 companies based in Rhode Island under the name Corvias. The Corvias website shows its work includes management of housing for military bases, including Fort Rucker.

-- Corrections Consultants, LLC was established in June 2017, according the Secretary of State’s website. The company is based in Demopolis, according to that listing. No other information was immediately available.

-- CoreCivic Inc., is based in Tennessee and has correctional, transitional, and treatment facilities across the country, including in Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and other states, according to its website.

-- Alabama Prison Transformation Partners is not listed in business records on the Secretary of State’s website. Alabama Political Reporter reported that B.L. Harbert International, a construction company based in Birmingham, and Star America Infrastructures are partners in the company.

The Ivey administration’s plan calls for companies to finance, design, build, and maintain three men’s prisons that would house a total of about 10,000 inmates, about half the current prison population in Alabama. The ADOC would operate the prisons under lease agreements.

The governor has described the state’s prison problems as a crisis. In April, the Department of Justice alleged the conditions in men’s prisons violate the Constitution because of the level of violence, drugs, weapons, and other problems.

The ADOC is under a federal court order to add about 2,000 correctional officers over the next few years as part of a lawsuit in which the judge found mental health care fell short of constitutional requirements.

Ivey and ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn said the plan to build prisons is essential to solving problems that have persisted for years. Dunn said the new prisons will allow rehabilitation programs that aren’t feasible in the old facilities.

The Legislature has increased funding for prisons, partly to raise correctional officer pay to improve hiring and retention.

This story was updated at 10:09 a.m. on August 29 to add that B.L. Harbert International and Star America Infrastructures are part of Alabama Prison Transformation Partners.