Gov. Kay Ivey said today that her administration is considering all options for building prisons, including leasing prisons from private companies.

Ivey was asked today about last week's announcement that the Alabama Department of Corrections, under her directive, plans to hire a project management team by mid-December to develop a master plan for building and renovating prisons.

Alabama prisons are filled to about 165 percent of their designed capacity and are aging and understaffed. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson has ruled that mental health care in prisons is "horrendously inadequate" and has ordered the state and attorneys representing inmates to propose remedies for the problem.

"It's essential that we in Alabama make the decisions and figure out how to solve the prison situation, both infrastructure and the medical and staffing needs that have been identified by the judge," Ivey said. "But Alabamians have got to take charge. And we've got to make these decisions and we will."

Former Gov. Robert Bentley proposed a plan to borrow up to $800 million to build new prisons and close most of the existing ones. The Legislature considered that plan and other alternatives last year and this year but none of the proposals passed.

Ivey said having prisons built by private companies and then leased back to the state would be an option that would not require the Legislature to approve a bond issue.

"We're considering every option that's available, and that's certainly an option," Ivey said. "There are firms in the nation, some even in the state that build and lease back. So it is possible that if we go this route, the private sector could build and bring the prisons online and the state would lease them back. So you wouldn't have to have a bond issue."

Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, who chairs the General Fund committee in the Senate, said he supports Ivey's initiative to explore ways to tackle the prison problem.

Pittman said the Legislature will need to be involved because it controls the budgets, and he expects that to happen because Ivey has a good relationship with lawmakers.

Some degree of privatization could be part of the solution to the prison problems, Pittman said.

"It's a big question but I'm open to ideas," Pittman said. "We'll have to look at the dollars and cents and see what the short-term and long-term costs are."

Pittman said one possibility is that private prisons could skim off the least costly segments of the prison population, such as those who are younger or less violent, for example.

Pittman said the state might need to reconsider sentencing laws because the cost of incarceration will increase with the likelihood of the federal court requiring costly improvements in mental health care. Medical care and dental care are also part of the ongoing federal litigation.

"I think you have to look at who you're incarcerating and how long you're incarcerating," Pittman said.

"Stuff expands to the space allotted to it. If you build bigger prisons you're going to fill them up."

Sentencing and criminal justice reforms passed by the Legislature over the last few years have trimmed the prison population by about 4,000 inmates, down to about 22,000 in facilities designed for about 13,000. The inmate population is expected to level off at about 20,000 by 2020, the DOC said.

Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, chairman of the House General Fund committee, said the Ivey administration has talked to him about the possibility of leasing privately owned prisons. Clouse said it's premature to say whether that's a good or bad idea without looking at long-range costs.

"There's a lot of financial figures that have got to be spread all across the table before any type of decision can be made by the Legislature," Clouse said.

Clouse said the prison situation will be a key component in budget discussions during the legislative session, which starts Jan. 9.

Ivey, who for months has stressed the need for Alabama to solve its prison problem ahead of court mandates, said using privately owned prisons could be one way to achieve that.

"You don't want the federal courts telling you what to do and how much you've got to spend to get the job done," Ivey said. "Alabama is going to handle this."