Delco may soon get answers on problems at its prison
CONCORD >> The longawaited Phoenix Management report evaluating the costs of a privately run versus publicly run prison will be finished by month’s end, officials announced Wednesday.
“The report will be delivered by the end of March,” John Hosier, chairman of the Delaware County Board of Prison Inspectors, said.
Last year, the prison board commissioned Phoenix Management Services to conduct a comparative analysis of private and public operations of correctional facilities. At the time, it was preceding the December 2018 expiration of the county’s contract with GEO Group Inc., the private company that runs the 1,883-inmate George W. Hill Correctional Facility.
The report was expected to be completed in the summer but has been affected by numerous delays and postponements. In December, the prison board unanimously approved a five-year, $264 million contract with GEO and it has two two-year options that could extend it to a nineyear, $495.9 million contract.
Officials have said that Phoenix has run into resistance in its informationgathering process.
“We thought the information would be more readily available but even from our surrounding counties, there’s been doors closed,” Hosier said.
While the contract was being negotiated, GEO also withheld information, citing proprietary reasons for doing so.
In addition, the prison board chairman explained that each correctional facility is unique and has processes and policies suited specifically for their operations and Phoenix is working to make the analysis as fair a comparison as possible.
“I think it is difficult to compare,” Hosier said. “Prisons do things in different ways. Their physical structures are set up differently, their populations are different. There are a lot of issues that aren’t similar.”
Also last fall, the prison board agreed to host a public meeting with Delaware County Council to present the findings of the report once they are available.
On Wednesday, Hosier explained he will contact county council Chairman John McBlain once he has received the report to determine how to proceed from there.
“We’re going to see the information they provide,” Hosier said. “It might be something we need to take another step to continue the study, I’m not sure. But, depending on what they provide us, we might have to continue.”
He said one reason to continue with the study would be to prepare for a transition back to a public model, if that would ever be needed or wanted.
At the meeting, county resident Margie McAboy asked about the study’s cost.
“At this point in time, I know that the contract with Phoenix is based on an hourly rate and since this report was due months ago and presumably more time has been spent than was originally forecast,” she said. The initial cost for the study was $100,000.
Hosier directed her to view the January meeting minutes for the most recent figures.
Those minutes were not provided to a reporter on Tuesday.