The expected opening of the state’s new $1 billion-plus mega prison in Elmore County will be delayed about five months to October of 2026.
Meanwhile, the state is preparing to potentially borrow an undetermined amount of money for the construction of the second 4,000-bed prison in Escambia County.
State lawmakers on the Alabama Correctional Institution Finance Authority confirmed the Elmore County facility delay to Alabama Daily News. It was discussed at an authority meeting last week.
Sen. Greg Albritton, authority member and chairman of the Senate General Fund budget, said the Elmore delay won’t cost the state money via a deal with contractor Caddell Construction Co.
“There was an agreement to delay the opening between the parties, in which Caddell has agreed to pay certain funds and do certain things to the benefit of the state,” Albritton, R-Range, said.
Emails seeking additional information were not immediately returned from the state departments of corrections or finance or the governor’s office. The sprawling multi-building prison campus will allow guards to monitor inmates from centralized hubs and will have two-man cells rather than dorms housing hundreds of men. It was named the Gov. Kay Ivey Prison Complex last year.
Authority member and House General Fund budget committee chairman Rep. Rex Reynolds, R-Hazel Green, told ADN he is disappointed by the delay at Elmore, but “the ADOC team was able to negotiate some additional scope of work related to critical communication infrastructure at no additional cost to the project.”
More bonding capacity
The authority last week passed a resolution to continue the construction planning process for the Escambia County prison.
It also has a new contract with law firm Maynard Nexsen to help navigate the bond market to borrow more money for the project.
The prison construction legislation approved by lawmakers and Ivey in 2021 included borrowing up to $785 million for the two facilities and the use of $400 million in American Rescue Act Plan funds.
In 2022, the authority hoped to sell $725 million in bonds, but was only able to sell $509 million, leaving $276 million that could still be issued. By early 2024, the cost of the first prison in Elmore County had ballooned to more than $1 billion, leaving officials searching for more funds for the Escambia County site.
Albritton and Reynolds in recent budget bills have dedicated funds to the Escambia County prion and recently said there is now upward of $600 million on hand for it, but more is needed. They also expect the south Alabama prison to cost less than the Elmore site because it will not have specialized medical and health facilities.
This year, Albritton, whose district includes Escambia County, successfully sponsored a bill allowing for an additional $500 million in bonds, if needed. At a Legislative Contract Review Committee meeting Thursday, Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, asked if the authority would be selling any of the additional $500 million capacity.
Taylor Nichols, general counsel for the Alabama Department of Finance, said he didn’t believe so. Finance Director Bill Poole chairs the prison authority.
Albritton told ADN it’s unlikely the $500 million would be used.
On Friday, the finance department stated that the contract with the law firm is being prepared for a potential bond issuance, but the amount has not yet been determined.
“The Escambia facility is currently in the project design phase, and the Department of Corrections released a request for qualifications for construction management services on October 14, 2025,” the written statement said. “The design process and the selection of a construction manager will help determine project costs. As a result, the amount of a potential ACIFA bond issuance is undetermined at this time.”
Albritton said he didn’t expect bonds to be issued soon, but the authority is beginning the process of “how much and when.”
The two new mega prisons won’t add 8,000 beds to ADOCs capacity, but will largely replace existing space in three outdated facilities that held nearly 3,900 inmates in August, the latest data available.
The state’s inmate population has risen from 17,864 in October 2021 when the prison plan was approved to 21,121 in August. Current prisons were designed to hold 12,115 people.
Advocacy group Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice has argued that the pricy prisons won’t fix crowded conditions at most of the state’s remaining prisons. It has advocated for other reforms, including more addiction treatment and pre-trial diversion programs.
Executive Director Carla Crowder on Friday said more information is needed on the cost of prison in Escambia County, especially given how the cost of the prison in Elmore County increased from initial estimates.
“… It’s actually quite shocking that the ADOC seems to have a blank check after nearly a decade now of documentation of massive corruption, mismanagement, brutality and utter disregard for public safety,” Crowder said.
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state, saying its failure to prevent violence in men’s prisons violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights of inmates.
There’s also an ongoing federal court order to improve staffing at the state facilities. The state hasn’t been able to meet it, but has seen some success in recent months after increasing ADOC pay.
“The failures of this system are not confined behind the prison walls,” Crowder said. “… Given the cost overruns and delays in the first billion dollar prison, it seems like it would be wise to wait and see if Elmore can safely open before throwing our money at a second prison with no real price tag,” Crowder said.
Albritton said the delay at Elmore prison makes his case for needing more financial flexibility through bonding.
“(These prisons are) a huge project and we’re not even half done with it yet, and there’s a huge learning curve that we’ve learned from, but there is still more to learn,” he said. “We’re just trying to make sure we’re covering the bases. “And if I might, we’re doing a pretty doggone good job given all the circumstances that we’ve worked through to get to where we are. We’ve been ahead of the curve on this the last two years.”