Might private prisons face budget cut axe?

Nicole at Texas Prison Bidness makes a good point: Politically, the easiest prison beds for the state to cut as a result of the coming predicted budget crunch might be those operated by private contractors.

She observed that the Department of Criminal Justice already suggested the possibility of eliminating 817 private prison beds, saving $10.7 million this biennium. Given that the state already has 2,300 beds worth of excess capacity, that should be done as soon as practicable.

She also noted with approval that "Senator John Whitmire, who chairs the Criminal Justice Committee, has specifically mentioned [the possibility of closing] the Mineral Wells lockup which is managed by the Corrections Corporation of America." (See Grits' discussion of those comments.)

Tack onto those suggestions the fact that TDCJ has replacement contracts with several private facilities it's scheduled to renew in the next 12 months - something they revealed in their budget-cut proposal earlier this week - and the state could soon see more opportunities for reducing excess beds. To the extent the state has excess capacity, it makes a lot of sense to eliminate those contracts going forward and absorb the prisoners back into state-owned units.

Of course, I still think there are several state-owned facilities that merit closure, but with the exception of the Central Unit in Sugarland (where the Chamber of Commerce crowd wants the unit closed to make way for airport-related development), those decisions would probably generate greater political backlash than simply reducing private capacity.