Attorneys for a controversial proposal for an alien-criminal prison on the corner of Kendall Drive and Krome Avenue have put the project on hold.  
In a recent letter to the Miami-Dade County Department of Planning and Zoning, an attorney for the proposal, Jerry Proctor, requested that officials ``withhold any processing'' of the prison application. The 1,500-bed low-security prison would be built and operated by Wackenhut Corrections Corp., one of five firms competing for a contract to house immigrant offenders for the federal Bureau of Prisons.
The reason, according to the letter: ``The applicants are reevaluating the matter and may be making modifications in the near future.''
The wording of that letter did not sit well with leaders of the Kendall Federation of Homeowners, the group opposing the prison. The federation had 200 residents at a Dec. 4 meeting to air concerns about the proposal.
Wackenhut, one of the world's largest private jailers, stands to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in a deal with the Bureau of Prisons. Comparable contracts awarded by the federal agency are worth up to $300 million over a 10-year period.
Cloid Shuler, the Wackenhut executive overseeing the project, said he was unaware that Murphy, the corporation's partner in the deal, was experiencing cold feet.