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| Alaska Prison Falling Short Of Expectations |
| By juneauempire.com |
| Published: 03/07/2011 |
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There was alarming news this week in the Capitol related to a long-awaited capital project that was, at its inception, meant to be an integrally important improvement to Alaska’s correctional system. The Goose Creek Correctional Center is somewhere more than three-quarters completed, and about a year from opening. Even though it is not yet technically behind schedule or over budget, there are still tremendous problems with the project. The most alarming fact disclosed to lawmakers this past week was what it will cost to operate this facility, and what these costs mean to the annual operating budget for the Department of Corrections in comparison to current operations. Goose Creek was conceived back in 2004, when former state Sen. Lyda Green, a Wasilla Republican, co-chaired the Senate Finance Committee and brought forward a bill to add needed correctional facilities all around Alaska. Goose Creek was supposed to be one of four potential partnerships between local governments and the state of Alaska. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough entered into an agreement with the state to build this enormous project, with the dual purposes of creating jobs for Alaskans and bringing Alaskan prisoners home from Outside to serve out their sentences here. This offered the alluring prospect of creating temporary and permanent work for Alaskans and followed the conventional wisdom in the correctional industry that inmates are likelier to be successfully rehabilitated when incarcerated closer to families and support networks. The Alaska Department of Corrections has about 3,800 inmates in its facilities, about the capacity of the existing statewide system. But the prison population is not evenly distributed and some facilities have excess space while others are overcrowded. In addition to these in-state prisoners, nearly 1,000 more Alaskans are currently housed in a private prison in Colorado, which costs the state some $20 million annually. Read More. |
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