Legislature(2003 - 2004)
03/11/2003 03:35 PM Senate STA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SB 65-CORRECTIONAL FACILITY EXPANSION
CHAIR GARY STEVENS announced he did not intend to move SB 65
from committee that day. Senator Green introduced the bill
during a previous hearing and he asked if she had additional
comments.
SENATOR LYDA GREEN, bill sponsor, restated the need for
additional prison facilities in the state. The proposed plan
offers the opportunity to add to existing facilities, which
would consolidate services without adding new administration.
She noted the amounts referred to in the letter from the
Department of Revenue and the figures shown on the Department of
Correction fiscal note have caused confusion. She added,
"Revenue feels that the state might aught to be the person doing
the actual bonding; whereas the communities feel like they are
perfectly capable of doing that."
There were no questions for Senator Green.
CHAIR GARY STEVENS noted there were a number of people waiting
to testify.
MARY BOWERY testified via teleconference. She has extensive
first hand knowledge of private prisons in the state of
Tennessee. Following are points regarding a comparative study of
private and state prisons in Tennessee:
· As per contract, only healthy inmates were assigned to the
private prison
· $4,000 medical cap per inmate per year in private prison
· Only medium custody or lower inmates assigned to private
prison
· State prison required to have an emergency response team
· Private prison was able to fill empty beds with inmates
from other states
· If Tennessee inmates were injured by inmates from other
states, Tennessee was liable for the medical and legal
costs
· The state was required to handle an escape from the private
prison because the private prison had no legal jurisdiction
to handle the escape. State taxpayers were not reimbursed
for the expense
· The private prison had a turnover rate of 100 percent in
two years with 62.9 percent in the first six months
· The private prison had more idle inmates because there were
fewer jobs for inmates and fewer educational or
rehabilitation opportunities and programs
· The private prison had increased incident reports of
violent acts
CHAIR GARY STEVENS asked what position she held with the
Tennessee prison system.
MS. BOWERY replied she was a correctional counselor III with a
wide range of jobs including parole work in a 400 inmate housing
unit.
There were no further questions for Ms. Bowery.
MR. FRANK SMITH testified via teleconference in support of SB
65. He has worked in substance abuse programs, has visited
prisons the world over and is familiar with the facilities
Senator Green envisions. He advised he sent the Chair a copy of
his recently published chapter on Native Americans in private
prisons.
The prison proposed in SB 65 is superior to the Whittier option
because Sutton has far better access, it addresses the
desperately needed expansions to the Bethel and Fairbanks
prison, and it would present a great savings to the state.
Having been involved in prison research for the last 30 years,
he felt qualified to advise members of the importance of
bringing prisoners closer to home. In fact, "That connection
with family and support systems in the community is absolutely
the most important thing in keeping Native Alaskans from going
back to jail."
The Tennessee study referred to in earlier testimony indicated
that the state saved just 38 cents per prisoner per day. Guards
in the private prisons were making very poor wages compared to
state correctional officers while the CEO's in private prisons
were making about two thirds of a million dollars.
CHAIR GARY STEVENS announced individual testimony would be
limited to five minutes.
SENATOR COWDERY asked if the cost of housing prisoners was
important.
MR. SMITH replied it is important.
SENATOR COWDERY asked whether the State could build
competitively and why exporting prisoners rather than building
in Alaska wasn't an acceptable alternative.
MR. SMITH reiterated the importance of proximity to families for
inmates. Also, training and staff stability help in the
rehabilitative process and private prisons have greater than 50
percent annual staff turnover compared to less than 15 percent
staff turnover in public prisons. Admittedly it may be cheaper
to house inmates in private prisons outside Alaska, but the
conditions in some private prisons are deplorable and some
private contracts have been rescinded due to poor conditions.
It's been suggested that moving prisons to Mexico would be even
cheaper, but you get what you pay for.
SENATOR COWDERY asked about safety and how many escapees the
Arizona prison has had.
MR. SMITH cited the example in which the court found that six
Alaskan inmates were justified in escaping from the Arizona
facility to get away from bad conditions. The court also found
the private prison had no legal authority to confine Alaskans in
Arizona.
SENATOR COWDERY said his informal inmate poll indicated most
inmates preferred to remain in Arizona.
MR. SMITH spoke to an article in the Anchorage Daily News that
tracked visiting rates in Arizona. It found just four of 825
Alaskan inmates were getting regular visits. Also, he has 150
pages of affidavits from Alaskan prisoners who were confined to
the Central Arizona Detention Facility in Florence describing
two unimaginable guard riots.
SENATOR COWDERY said, "Well I guess it's our role to get the
best bang for the buck and it's not our role to coddle our
prisoners necessarily, but they got to be treated humane. I
don't want to waste any more time on this, thank you."
There were no further questions of Mr. Smith.
MR. DAVID KATZEEK gave testimony in both Tlingit and English.
This particular bill, whether it's private or whether
it's public-I would strongly encourage the legislators
to take a look at what you have in your hands and ask
yourselves a question. What will history say of me
when I served in the Legislature and the majority of
the people that have been placed in prison are my
people? Building prisons doesn't really solve the
major problem. Prisons with rehabilitative programs
and projects are the type of things that can turn
things around. You're talking about money. If you're
talking about money then I would encourage you to take
a look at the recidivism rate and find out how much
you're getting double dipped by one particular
prisoner over and over and over again. The other
question I would ask is, Are we living in an addictive
society where we continue to do the same thing over
and over and over and over and over.... and over again
expecting different results and yet getting the same
kind of results over again? And then somebody comes
and says, "Let's build another prison."
Have you heard a little baby crying whose daddy is
incarcerated and who maybe started off in getting into
trouble by drinking? Put yourself in the position of
that individual. Have you heard the kid crying in
prison whose grandmother passed away whose grandfather
passed away that they can't go and see? I am not in
favor of the state building facilities where you're
going to have a state run program where you're
listening to a special interest group and believe me
when I'm saying this, that special interest group will
be following me and looking at me because I'm saying
something that's contrary to what the general rule is.
I'm here to plead with you noble people. You are noble
people just like I am and just like those individuals
that are placed in prison. I ran a brief demonstration
that I would call a beta-tested program using our
Tlingit culture and how we interacted with one
another. I called the prisoners that I met with-and I
was doing this voluntarily with respect to the Alaska
Native Brotherhood Camp II-and I called them Aan Yuxu
Saani. I called them noble people. Those individuals
that were incarcerated went back to their counselors
and other people and said, "You know what this guy
called us? Noble." They were white guys. They were
saying, "Nobody had ever called us noble before."
Tears running down their face. Some of these guys are
now out providing for their families and doing good
work. The point I'm making to you is building prisons
is not necessarily the solution. Building prisons with
respect to institutions that will allow us to develop
the kind of programs-Why do I say us? I'm saying
Native people. When we become responsible, as Native
people, for our own people, we are beginning to get
healed. So what will history say of you? That you
built a big prison over in Fairbanks that didn't do
anything?
MR. KATZEEK said this is the third year he has come to ask
legislators to look beyond the bars and cement to the human
beings. Although it is difficult to talk about prisons for his
people, he came to testify because he loves his people. He can
see and feel and understand the rage of his or any people whose
traditional lifestyle is so changed, but building bigger prisons
isn't the answer. "Look for prisons that will be able to meet
the need that history will record that you had compassion and
mercy on your fellow man."
CHAIR GARY STEVENS thanked Mr. Katzeek for his testimony and
asked if there were any questions.
SENATOR COWDERY commented that about one third of the Alaska
Native inmates he met in Arizona had committed crimes against
Caucasians and about two thirds had committed crimes against
other Alaska Natives. He said, "A crime is a crime and you can
have compassion but I, you got to have compassion for the
victims and the victims families too."
MR. KATZEEK replied he was pleased Senator Cowdery said that
because it "documents the frustration with respect to an
individual in their community who can't provide with dignity for
their families."
SENATOR COWDERY responded, "Whose fault is that now?"
MR. KATZEEK replied there are a variety of issues such as
subsistence and limited entry that make it difficult for
individuals to provide. To solve that he would say, "You are a
human being and the most important thing in being a human being
is to be able to listen attentively to your spirit, to your
heart, to your sole, to your mind. And work from being who we
are as people. That doesn't forgive the person for doing
something that's wrong. That's acknowledging a human being, like
you acknowledged me today. I really appreciate it because you
recognized me, you acknowledged me and you accepted me. It
doesn't mean that you agree with what I'm saying, but the honor
of letting me sit here regardless of where I come from or my
background is a principle in any human relationship and
interaction."
There were no further questions for Mr. Katzeek.
CHAIR GARY STEVENS called Ron Swanson to testify.
MR. RON SWANSON, community development director for the Mat-Su
Borough, testified the borough assembly passed a resolution
supporting municipal owner state operated prisons on February
18, 2003. The development of newer and expanded prisons in
Alaska municipalities would benefit Alaskans by providing
construction and permanent year around prison jobs. Also,
housing prisoners in the state would allow prisoners to be
closer to their families and culture and would enhance
rehabilitation.
The Mat-Su Borough has three correctional facilities with a
total of 585 beds. The Palmer Correction Facility at Sutton, the
Mat-Su Pretrial Facility in Palmer, and the Point MacKenzie
Facility have provided stable and well paying jobs for Alaskans.
The Sutton Facility would be expanded to 1,200 beds and was
originally planned and constructed with enough land for the
expansion. The combination of the prison expansion, an increased
recreation and tourism base at Hatcher Pass, and a new regional
hospital and mental health facility would diversify the borough
economy.
The Department of Corrections would operate the facilities under
long-term lease agreements with local boroughs and cities. Tax-
exempt revenue bonds would be used to finance the facilities and
would be secured by assignment of lease payments payable to the
boroughs and cities. Bond proceeds would be used to finance
construction and expense to issue the bonds. The state would
have responsibility for design and construction of the
facilities through construction management agreements. As owners
of the facilities, cities and boroughs would accept liability
not covered by insurance.
There were no questions asked of Mr. Swanson.
MR. RONALD WILSON stated he has been a state employee and
corrections officer for over 19 years, but he was representing
himself. He said private prisons have not proven they can
provide correctional services more cheaply than their public
counterpart and any private prison cost savings comes through
reduced staff expenses. Public employees have background checks,
psychological evaluations, attend and pass the correctional
officer academy, and meet Alaska Pay Standard Council
requirements. He asked, "If your going to place twice as many
inmates in one facility as you have ever done before, why
wouldn't you want the staff in that facility to meet the
requirements that [correction] officers now have to meet?"
SIDE B
4:25 pm
He quoted findings from several studies that indicated private
prisons did not measure favorably compared to state run
facilities and outlined specific examples of private failures in
Alaska.
There were no questions asked of Mr. Wilson.
MR. DANIEL COLANG expressed support for SB 65. He said he has
been employed by Department of Corrections for eleven years, but
the views expressed were his own.
His father, a World War II veteran, always encouraged him to
vote because thousands of Americans died on the battlefield to
safeguard that right. Because Alaskans have voted against
private prisons two times, he asked the committee to honor that
request.
There were no questions asked of Mr. Colang.
MR. DEAN RAND, long term Whittier resident, testified via
teleconference that he was not in favor of locating a private
prison in Whittier.
CHAIR GARY STEVENS advised the committee was hearing SB 65.
MR. RAND said he realized that and he just wanted members to
have a more accurate picture regarding the amount of community
support for a private prison in Whittier because, Cornell
Company has "steamrolled into and over the citizens of
Whittier." Community support for a private prison in Whittier is
"questionable at best."
There was no further testimony on SB 65.
CHAIR GARY STEVENS announced he would hold SB 65 in committee
until Thursday. If members agreed, it was his intention to move
the bill from committee at that time.
SENATOR GUESS asked whether public testimony was closed or would
it be taken on Thursday.
CHAIR GARY STEVENS advised public testimony could be given on
Thursday.
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