By KEVIN GILES, Star Tribune
A House bill that would require the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) to solicit offers from private companies to house state inmates has run into strong opposition.
In an apparent reversal from practice under Gov. Tim Pawlenty's administration, the state's new corrections commissioner prefers that prison inmates remain under public management. Some legislators also question the purpose of opening private prisons, and the union that represents 1,900 correctional officers condemns the legislation as a union-busting effort.
But the bill's sponsor, Rep. Torrey Westrom, R-Elbow Lake, said this week that Minnesota needs competitive bidding between public and private prisons to reduce costs to taxpayers. Westrom described his bill, HF 939, as "a budget-saving measure," but also said that he hoped it would allow a mothballed private prison near his district in western Minnesota to reopen.
"It had a good record and was a well-run prison," he said of the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, which was closed in early 2010 for lack of business. "Toe to toe I think it could match up with what our state facilities are running."
Commissioner Tom Roy, who took over the Corrections Department just seven weeks ago as Gov. Mark Dayton's appointee, said he believes in principle that state prisons, like other public safety agencies, should remain accountable to the public. He's also sympathetic to union concerns that three of Minnesota's nine adult prisons are understaffed.
Roy said the public holds the DOC to a high standard and "I have total confidence that the public entity of corrections should properly fall in the public realm."
Private prisons find no favor with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 5 (AFSCME). "We are concerned that private prisons for profit have become a nasty business," said Eliot Seide, the union's executive director. "They're trying to make a profit out of human incarceration. That's a throwback to the Middle Ages."
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A House bill that would require the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) to solicit offers from private companies to house state inmates has run into strong opposition.
In an apparent reversal from practice under Gov. Tim Pawlenty's administration, the state's new corrections commissioner prefers that prison inmates remain under public management. Some legislators also question the purpose of opening private prisons, and the union that represents 1,900 correctional officers condemns the legislation as a union-busting effort.
But the bill's sponsor, Rep. Torrey Westrom, R-Elbow Lake, said this week that Minnesota needs competitive bidding between public and private prisons to reduce costs to taxpayers. Westrom described his bill, HF 939, as "a budget-saving measure," but also said that he hoped it would allow a mothballed private prison near his district in western Minnesota to reopen.
"It had a good record and was a well-run prison," he said of the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, which was closed in early 2010 for lack of business. "Toe to toe I think it could match up with what our state facilities are running."
Commissioner Tom Roy, who took over the Corrections Department just seven weeks ago as Gov. Mark Dayton's appointee, said he believes in principle that state prisons, like other public safety agencies, should remain accountable to the public. He's also sympathetic to union concerns that three of Minnesota's nine adult prisons are understaffed.
Roy said the public holds the DOC to a high standard and "I have total confidence that the public entity of corrections should properly fall in the public realm."
Private prisons find no favor with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 5 (AFSCME). "We are concerned that private prisons for profit have become a nasty business," said Eliot Seide, the union's executive director. "They're trying to make a profit out of human incarceration. That's a throwback to the Middle Ages."
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