Supersized prison: Alabama will soon be home to the most expensive jail in US history
Elmore County AL October 16 2023 Alabama is building a new supersize prison that will cost over $1 billion – the most expensive incarceration facility in U.S. history.
The Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority late last month approved a final price of $1.08 billion for the 4,000-bed prison now under construction in Elmore County.
And Alabama isn’t the only state moving forward with plans for larger, pricier prisons, with proponents of such facilities citing the need to address issues of overcrowding, poor sanitation conditions and a lack of mental health resources in the current facilities.
Nebraska is building a new $350 million, 1,500-bed prison to replace the Nebraska State Penitentiary. Supporters say it will alleviate the overflow of inmates in the state’s prisons, which hold about 50% more people than they were designed for.
“This investment is a key part of our community,” Rob Jeffreys, director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, told CBS affiliate KOLN. “It [provides the] ability to keep people safe.”
In Georgia, officials have been tasked by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners to find the funds for a $1.69 billion facility with 4,500 beds to replace the current Fulton County Jail — known to locals by its address, Rice Street — which many advocates say is beyond repair.
“It’s an obligation that we have,” Commissioner Bob Ellis told Atlanta News First.
Supporters of the prisons say the new facilities will relieve issues that have long plagued jails, making them more susceptible to homicides, virus outbreaks and abusive conditions that, in the most extreme instances, have prompted the Department of Justice to step in.
“The new prison facilities being built in Alabama are critically important to public safety, to our criminal justice system and to Alabama as a whole,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement.
However, prison reform advocates say building newer prisons without addressing the underlying causes of the problems that plagued the old facilities will only put a temporary Band-Aid on an issue that needs a long-term solution.
“No experts have said that newer jails will solve our prison crisis,” Charlotte Morrison, a senior attorney at the Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery, Ala.-based nonprofit that works to end mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and racial injustice, told Yahoo News.
Morrison and other advocates also argue that the lack of meaningful rehabilitation in many prisons is a contributing factor to the overall decline of conditions inside. They suggest that other reforms aimed at speeding up processing times for inmates and reducing the number of people incarcerated for minor infractions could also help ease overcrowding.
“If you have a football team that’s losing year after year, a new stadium doesn’t make it better. You need new leadership,” Morrison said.
Other critics have balked at Alabama lawmakers’ willingness to spend $1 billion on a prison when 1 out of 4 children in the state — one of the poorest in the country — and 17% of adults there struggle with food insecurity.
“Many in Alabama don’t have access to food, running water, and health care,” Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, in September.
“It is unconscionable that state leaders would spend over $1 billion to construct the most expensive super-prison in the nation,” Sewell’s post continued. “This should outrage everyone!”
Some have also raised questions about who will pay for the prisons in Alabama, Nebraska and Georgia, with opponents objecting to making taxpayers foot the bill.
The Alabama prison is expected to be completed in May 2026, according to the contract terms. In Nebraska, construction is expected to begin in the fall of 2024. The expected opening date for the Georgia prison, once plans are approved, is 2029.
