Representatives of Corrections Corporation of America denied accusations employees at a federal detention center in Pahrump will be paid minimum wage and the facility will overburden local emergency services.

CCA, the largest private operator of prisons in the U.S., received the go-ahead to build a federal detention center for 1,000 to 1,500 prisoners awaiting trial in the federal courts or deportation.

It would be located at 2250 E. Mesquite Ave., about a mile east of Highway 160.

Brad Wiggins, CCA senior director of site acquisition and development, said a biological assessment was completed on the site. The company is awaiting an opinion.

"We still anticipate that in late August, and we think that is going to not create any scheduling issues," Wiggins said. "With the information we have provided and the feedback we have gotten, we don't anticipate any surprises."

CCA is continuing discussions with Utilities Inc. of Central Nevada to extend water and sewer service to the site, he said.

"I'd say those are going OK. We expected to bring that to conclusion well in advance on anything that might affect the project schedule," Wiggins said.

Company officials say it's premature to predict a date for the ground-breaking.

Stephen L. Holbo, a retired lieutenant with 30 years experience in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, charged CCA operates prisons at a much reduced cost, adding, "Mostly that reduced cost is due to paying correctional officers minimum wage, much below the cost of a more highly-trained and continually trained government correctional officer."

The federal detention center is expected to employ 200 to 250 individuals with an annual operating budget of $25 million to $40 million.

Assistant Federal Detention Trustee Scott Stermer told a small crowd at the Bob Ruud Community Center during a public hearing in June 2007 the contractor chosen will be required to pay at least $17.45 per hour to the lowest paid detention officers.

CCA Director of Marketing Steve Owen said during a conference call Monday: "What we said was we thought, and we're pretty sure, that that federal wage determination for a starting wage for correctional officers was going to be in that $17 to $18 per hour range. It is absolutely a fact what the company is required to pay."

Holbo referred to the Web site of the American Correctional Officer Intelligence Network, ACOIN, with the address of www.cointel.net. It contains a publication titled "Private Prison Media Reports," with newspaper clippings from January to July 2007 and a four-page introduction critical of privatizing prisons.

ACOIN claims the private corporations industry has failed to prove privatization resulted in cost savings, innovation or good jobs.

ACOIN said assaults on staff were 49 percent higher in private prisons and 66 percent higher on fellow inmates.

It claims prisons have negative effects on property values and the employee turnover rate is 54 percent annually, compared to 16.3 percent in public facilities.

The organization states there were 319 escapes from private facilities between 1995 and 2004, a ratio of one per 300 inmates, compared to a ratio of one in 12,500 in the California Department of Corrections.

Owen said the organization took the worst isolated incidents to make broad sweeping conclusions about the private corrections industry.

He said much of the information was taken from the Criminal Justice Institute's 2000 Corrections Yearbook, which is obsolete.

"You have the leadership of these organizations like ACOIN who exploit those obvious challenges and try to make broad sweeping conclusions, because frankly an organization like that is opposed to the status quo," Owen said.

Owen referred to awards the company received, like one Corporate Responsibility Officer magazine, which recently rated CCA as one of the 100 best corporate citizens. He said CCA made the list of Forbes top 400 best companies last year.

"Regrettably in corrections, incidents can and do occur. Incidents can and do occur at correctional facilities around this country, public and private," Owen said. "In our 25-year history, we have never lost a contract due to performance."

Nearly half the correctional systems in the U.S. do business with CCA, including the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Marshal Service, he said. Sixty communities house the company's correctional facilities, including California City, Calif., and Eloy, Ariz.

When it comes to straining public facilities, Owen said CCA pays applicable taxes that will flow into the revenues of local governments.

"In most instances our facilities are well equipped to handle anything that comes our way," Owen said. "Because we do handle a lot of our incidents internally, that is money that goes to local services."

A federal detention center could end up attracting more doctors and specialists to the local community, he said.

All those correctional officers working in Pahrump would be like having that many extra police officers in the community with criminal justice training, Owen said.

Holbo, in his letter to the editor published June 6 charged, "They will not provide a profession for your residents to move up the ladder in income."

Owen said, "Turnover is a challenge that we face like all correction systems around the country."

He added, "It's not a profession that everybody's cut out for."

But Owen countered that a facility like that proposed for Pahrump, where a federal wage determination will apply, would have lower turnover. He added that CCA has put a lot of time and resources into recruitment and retention, developing career ladders.

"There's lots of opportunities for transfer, promotion and personal growth," he said.

Owen invited the press to contact officials in communities with CCA facilities.

During an April 2007 meeting during which Nye County commissioners repealed a provision in the county code mandating a 50,000-foot distance between correctional facilities and residences, Pahrump Town Board Vice Chairman John McDonald had concerns over inmates roaming the streets of Pahrump once they're released.

McDonald said he was impressed during a tour he and Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis took of a 2,300-bed correctional facility for housing low-security felons who are in the country illegally in California City .

"They're pretty self-sufficient," McDonald said. "They have their own infirmary, their own doctor, their own nurses, their buildings are highly fireproof, and they have all of their corrections officers trained as firefighters. They have hydrants, fire stands, sources of water throughout."

McDonald said he doesn't know if there would be any more emergency calls if the federal detention center opens in Pahrump. He said the correctional facility he toured housed 2,680 inmates during his visit, like a town by itself, in California City, which only has a population of 800.

His only concern was about CCA recruiting correctional officers from the same pool of employees where the town might hire firefighters.

Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said he has yet to sit down with CCA officials and discuss an emergency preparedness plan as company officials promised back in the early planning stages.

Owen said CCA will execute a memorandum of understanding with local law enforcement after a warden is named, six to nine months before the detention center is opened.

Owen said over 90 percent of the CCA facilities are accredited by the American Correctional Association, as opposed to less than 40 percent of the public prisons and 20 percent of the jails.

ACOIN charges the ACA routinely accepts money from private prison companies.

"The diploma on my wall is in corrections, not in profiteering," Owen said. "The fact our paychecks are paid by a corporation executive instead of a public official shouldn't affect the job we do."