Federal prisons are not economic engines

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has more than 6,800 inmates in 10 different Kentucky facilities.

There are two high-security penitentiaries — Big Sandy in Inez and McCreary in Pine Knot — a medium-security institution in Manchester, the low-security prison in Ashland and a medical center in Lexington. All five have minimum-security satellite prison camps.

Despite repetition about prisons bringing prosperity, Eastern Kentucky remains impoverished, because prisons are not economic engines.

And yet, the region’s longtime 5th District congressman, Hal Rogers, has secured another high-security penitentiary for Appalachia, with sweet talk about local jobs and post-coal prosperity.

“Not only will this project be a long-term economic shot in the arm for Eastern Kentucky, but it will also provide much-needed relief for the federal prison system,” said Rogers’ press release. Past understaffing and prospective BOP downsizing belie Rep. Rogers’ ambitious rhetoric, though.

A new prison does mean short-term construction jobs, along with fast-food drive-thrus and hotels. But prisons are a specialty, large-scale commercial projects with peculiar security and design concerns. National construction contractors like Caddell and Clark will need local labor, but that labor has an expiration date.

Large prisons do crack open a small service-economy window. Besides restaurants, gas stations and hotels, builders will need housing when they arrive to open what will soon become one of America’s most dangerous places. Once the prison is stuffed with inmates, some visitors will arrive.

But inmates’ families are typically poor, and some are lucky to get even a couple of nights each year in prison town. Their finite dollars are further restricted by visiting-room hours and group-size limits. And during the lockdown periods common at penitentiaries, the visiting rooms (and so the hotels, and the restaurants) stay empty until visitors can re-enter.

So any long-term economic boost will be chiefly in minimum-wage services, expanded for new prison workers and a couple hundred weekend visitors. Every gasp is life when drowning, and even these jobs will help. But the people of McCreary County and Inez/Martin County and Victorville, Calif., know how easy it is to overstate the long-term benefits of prison tourism.

The Letcher prison will be opened by experienced administrators and seasoned staff. That leaves fewer than 400 permanent jobs there. These new hires will eventually become the better-paid seasoned staff given opportunities to transfer for experience and promotion. But at first, local hires will be entry-level.

Only experience prepares one for standing post over dozens of unsecured predators, protected by only pepper spray, maybe a stab vest, and a panic button that others will need time to answer. Correctional officers, like cops and riflemen, need specific training.

Yet to battle chronic understaffing, the BOP has long pressed under-trained non-custody staff, like secretaries, psychologists, and health care providers —all of whom are already in short supply — into “mission-critical” custody stations. BOP calls this dangerous duty-shifting “augmentation,” and it continues despite Congress calling to end the practice.

Still the BOP’s fiscal year 2019 budget proposes staff reductions of 12 percent to 14 percent. That is up to 6,000 jobs nationwide, including an estimated 1,800 correctional guards.

The BOP suggests the shock won’t be severe, since many of the eliminated jobs are already unfilled. We are far more likely to see unstaffed guard towers like those that helped a carjacker escape from USP Atwater, Calif., in May 2017.

The economic promises about a Letcher prison are not credible given BOP understaffing and budget realities. The economic reality is that 30 years later, we’re still learning that we cannot build enough prisons if our only goal is incarceration, instead of cost-effective crime reduction.

This story was originally published April 20, 2018 at 9:02 PM with the headline "Federal prisons are not economic engines."