SHERIFFS CONSIDER PRIVATE AREA JAIL

Corrections Corporation of America will send a proposal packet to Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan Friday, taking another step closer to putting jails under private management in Southeast Missouri.

Jordan, along with officials from Mississippi and Scott counties, is interested in the private jail system and perhaps building a regional facility housing inmates from the three counties.

CCA spokeswoman Dana Moore said her company will determine what the counties want and will tailor a proposal to the information the counties provide.

"They tell us exactly what they want," she said, "and then what we attempt to do is create a project from the very beginning according to what they want."

Moore said a packet will be mailed Friday to Jordan with a formal invitation for him and a delegation to tour a CCA prison in Tennessee.

"We're waiting on a list of available dates," Jordan said. "We'll coordinate it and go down and meet with them."

The big attraction for making the jail system private is the removal of taxpayer liability, he said, adding that inmates have nothing to do but file lawsuits that consume valuable county time and money.

"It takes taxpayer money to fight the inmate lawsuits," he said. "Every time I'm sued, the county taxpayer is sued. Even the frivolous ones can cost thousands of dollars before they're thrown out."

With a private company taking control of the jail system, Jordan said he and county taxpayers shed that responsibility. A jail run by a private company would give the department time to concentrate more on law enforcement instead of jail administration.

An inmate costs between $25 and $27 a day to house, and the county spends at least $450,000 a year on the jail, Jordan said. This doesn't include other man-hours and expenses that don't figure directly into the cost of running the jail.

Jordan said a year might pass before the details of what the counties want in a regional jail facility could be worked out, adding that some counties might not be interested when the final costs are tallied.

"We might only go with two counties on this," he said, "but I think it will benefit this county to move forward."

Mississippi County Sheriff Larry Turley already has toured a CCA prison near Nashville and strongly supports putting Missouri jails under private management.

"It's the finest-looking and best-run jail that I've ever seen," he said. "I see nothing wrong with having something like that for three or four counties in Southeast Missouri."

Scott County Sheriff Bill Ferrell is interested in sharing a facility with Cape Girardeau County. A Scott County sheriff's spokeswoman said Ferrell was "very interested" in touring a CCA facility.

CCA has 21,675 beds under contract at 28 facilities in eight states and Australia, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom.