MARK SMITH MORE COLUMNS Advertisement

Heard from Corrections Corporation of America this week and learned several things.

One, there are no plans for two or three or more prisons here.

To begin with, it has a federal contract for one detention center and, even if it wanted to, couldn't just arbitrarily move forward with further developments.

Its PR firm had received a thunderously misleading e-mail which said CCA is "planning 3 prisons and are supposed to start phase 2 (second prison) now."

This is what we received in response:

"This is absolutely false. CCA is constructing ... a single, 1,072 bed detention center (not a prison) for the U.S. Marshals Service."

This is what's actually going on (although you can bet the stupid stuff will continue to be passed about by those who believe in death panels and a flat earth at the center of the universe).

The phase occurring now is the construction of housing cells. Then will come "administration and other support areas," and finally "the housing dormitory space."

Two, the e-mail reported, again wrongly, that CCA had delayed construction "because of protestors, and the legalities between CCSC and CCA."

To begin with, construction has not been delayed, period. The team at work is "aggressively meeting all deadlines, and we are now 30 percent complete on this large-scale project," reported the PR outfit.

In the second place, there are no "legalities." The lawsuit was dismissed by the courts and can hardly be holding anything up, except perhaps the pants of the self-promoters who still object to a detention center.

"CCA feels very confident that we have the strong support of the local community," the firm went on, "and we are eager to maintain our very active process of bringing this important economic project to completion."

* * *

It's the sort of thing to give Donna Cox nightmares.

As reported recently in the New York Times, the state of Arizona has decided to "seek bids from private companies for 9 of the state's 10 prison complexes that house roughly 40,000 inmates, including the 127 ... on death row."

Arizona is facing a $2 billion budget shortfall and thinks privatizing the prisons will at least put a crimp in that.

The idea is that a private prison outfit would pay $100 million right off the bat and operate a couple of the complexes.

Any savings would be split between the firm and the state.

And you'll never guess who's involved. Could CCA's marketing and communications chief Louise Grant be looking for a home in Phoenix?

Well, could be, since CCA is mentioned prominently in the article as a potential bidder.

In fact, CCA is already one of the outfits that has a contract with other states, such as Hawaii and Alaska, to house their inmates in Arizona.

At any rate, a member of the GOP who chairs the House Appropriations Committee in Arizona said he is "very happy" with both the performance of the contractors and the savings realized by the state.

* * *

CCA put a private prison in Shelby, Mont., a decade ago, and plenty of folks were concerned about crime, escapes, quality of life and property values. Recently the city -- not CCA -- did its own analysis of how things have been going over the 10 years.

* Not one escape, not even an attempt to escape, has been reported.

* The crime rate in the county where the prison is located has dropped by half since its opening.

* Many individuals who were receiving public assistance are off the roles "as they garnered employment with the correctional facility."

* "Property adjacent to [the correctional facility] has grown in value."

In summation, said the mayor of Shelby, a plausible gent named Larry J. Bonderud, "Our 10-year analysis indicates that the private correctional facility is safe and does not cause adverse social problems in a community."

Now true, what follows is from a CCA official, but remember, the community did the study.

Said CCA Chief Development Office Tony Grande, "The study shows that CCA has brought strong jobs, meaningful taxes and active community involvement in a very safe environment for the public."