MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority voted Wednesday to approve the procurement of design and construction contracts for a proposed 4,000-bed prison in Escambia County, though members remain uncertain as to how they will actually fund the project.
The unnamed Escambia County prison is one of two 4,000-bed prisons that state lawmakers dedicated $1.2 billion in funding for in 2021. The first is now far into construction in Elmore County. But after the cost of the Elmore County prison ballooned to more than $1 billion, state leaders have yet to come up with a plan for how to pay for the second prison in Escambia County.
At the ACIFA meeting, held at the State Capitol, Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Range, repeatedly voiced concerns over expenses related to the prisons, as did his Senate colleague Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro.
“My concern is running over, and how many times do we have to figure out how much is this going to cost and how much have we spent, knowing how much we have on hand?” Albritton said. “Now, we’ve got a conglomeration of money that we’ve thrown into this from several different sources, and every time we ask how much is there, we get different numbers from different people. I’d like to have one individual or somebody to keep track of that in one place so that we can see who and what’s spending.”
Bill Poole, who heads the Alabama Department of Finance, gave a commitment to Albritton and Singleton that state lawmakers would be notified of additional, ancillary expenditures related to the Elmore County prison’s construction outside of what lawmakers had already approved. Albritton later told Alabama Daily News that Poole’s commitment satisfied his concerns.
The ACIFA also unanimously approved a name for the Elmore County Prison: the Governor Kay Ivey Correctional Complex, a name Albritton told ADN he thought was “wonderful.”
The resolution the body approved Wednesday, as explained by Alina Arbuthnot, outside counsel to the Alabama Department of Corrections, was for “comprehensive design-related services for the Esambia men’s prison facility.” A contract approving the construction of the facility, Arbuthnot explained, would come before the ACIFA at a future date, likely after funding for the project had been secured.
“This contract has comprehensive design-related services for the Escambia men’s prison facility, (and) the design will progress in two parts,” Arbuthnot said. “Part one would be the design of the first roughly 2,000 beds and the support infrastructure for that.”
The specifications for the design contract were similar to those of the Elmore County prison, though only “as much as it makes sense for them to be the same across both facilities,” Arbuthnot said.
While the full contract, including cost, was not immediately available, Albritton told ADN that the Montgomery-based Goodwyn Mills and Cawood architecture and engineering firm was involved. Caddell Construction was contracted to design and construct the prison in Elmore County.
Members unanimously approved the resolution. As to how lawmakers will come up with the remaining funding for the Escambia County prison, Albritton, chairman of the Senate General Fund budget committee, remained vague, and simply suggested that the state would have to look at fiscally “tightening the belt” soon.
To come up with the initial funding for the two prisons, Alabama had sold $500 million in bonds, dedicated $400 million from American Rescue Plan Act federal dollars, allocated $150 million in its fiscal year 2025 supplemental General Fund budget, and supplemented ADOC’s budgets with funds dedicated to prison construction.
“To my estimates, we have enough to get finished up with Elmore, and to get going on the other,” Albritton told ADN. “We don’t know how much more it’s going to take until we get a final price on Escambia.”
ADN pressed Albritton on what lawmakers were considering as to how to come up with the additional funds required to complete the construction of the second prison. He said it was still premature to discuss those talks publicly.
“That’s something that I’m unwilling to discuss openly yet because as soon as you step on toes, you step on toes,” he said. “So the first issue at this point is to recognize that we’ve gotten this far down the road, we’ve got the second one now moving forward. That’s huge. Now, we’ve got to figure out how much that’s going to cost, and then start planning and engaging on that.”
Alabama leaders have prioritized the construction of the two prisons in recent years amid an ongoing lawsuit against the state from the U.S. Department of Justice over the condition of the state’s violent and overcrowded prisons, as well as ongoing calls for action from inmates’ families and loved ones.
The new prisons will be state of the art facilities with modern amenities, with the Elmore County prison housing enhanced medical and mental health services, including abuse treatment, rehabilitative programing, and vocational training, with 720 beds dedicated solely to medial and mental health. As of Wednesday, the first phase of the Elmore County prison’s construction is approximately 47% complete according to ADOC, and upon completion, will see staff from J.F. Ingram State Technical College work with inmates on site to provide technical training programs.
Annette Funderburk, president of Ingram State, said during a Alabama Community College System Board meeting Wednesday that the institution anticipates offering classes at the Elmore County prison in fall of 2026.
The new prisons, however, will only moderately help with prison overcrowding given that several older prisons, albeit overcrowded beyond design capacity, are set to be closed upon the their completion.
Alabama Daily News’ Trish Crain contributed to this report.