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| Alabama to Use Mississippi Prison |
| By Birmingham News |
| Published: 07/03/2003 |
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The Alabama Department of Corrections announced plans June 26 to move 1,400 male inmates to a Mississippi private prison built to house 1,100 prisoners. Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America opened the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in job-starved Tutwiler, Miss., in 2000. The $35 million medium-security prison currently houses 40 county inmates and has never held more than 500, CCA spokesman Steve Owen said. With some adjustments, the prison will be able to hold all 1,400 of the Alabama men, Owen said. Alabama will pay the for-profit CCA $27.50 per inmate per day, and will begin sending prisoners in about three weeks, said Alabama prisons spokesman Brian Corbett. The transfers will be done in increments, and from all across the state, he said. The contract will be a boost to the depressed area, as CCA will increase its staff from about 40 employees to 275, Owen said. Many of the needed employees will be rehires, people who previously worked at area CCA prisons who were laid off because of a drop in inmate populations. Depending on how long the officers have been off work, CCA will require them to complete some training. The newly laid off will need 40-hour refresher courses. Those who have been out of work longer will be required to complete the full complement of CCA training four-weeks in the classroom and two weeks of on-the-job training in the prison, Owen said. Gov. Bob Riley and the Department of Corrections authorized Alabama's emergency contract on a short-term basis while the state develops a plan for the future, CCA said in a statement issued last week. The state is trying to comply with two court orders to end overcrowding one calling for removal of state prisoners from county jails and another ordering the state to reduce the number of inmates at Tutwiler Prison for women in Wetumpka. More than 300 women are being housed at a private prison in Basile, La., run by Louisiana Corrections Services. |
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