MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority on Thursday approved the issuance of bonds to secure up to $195 million in funding for the soon-to-be-built Escambia prison.
Thursday’s action puts ACIFA, the state body in charge of funding new prisons, one step closer to breaking ground on the 4,000-bed facility in Atmore. The ballooning cost of the separate Elmore County prison funded by the same 2021 legislation has delayed the start of construction for the Escambia facility.
That legislation dedicated $1.2 billion for two prisons, but the total cost for the Elmore facility now exceeds $1 billion due to inflation and increased scope to include education and mental health services.
The authority members did not offer how much the state is looking to issue in bonds for the Escambia prison, but Senate General Fund Budget Chair Greg Albritton, R-Range, told reporters afterward that the maximum bond amount is $195 million.
That’s in addition to $690 million in cash on hand the state has already set aside, Albritton said. That money came from “an intentional penny pinching” by the state, he explained.
“That is an amount recognizing the difficulties through the years of where we are with this, and learning as we have,” Albritton said. “The Alabama Legislature, working with the Governor’s Office and (ADOC) and others, was able to search the sofa cushions to pull forth from areas that we needed to for the number of years to put these into this construction account for this purpose.”
He estimated that this money and the bonds should be enough to finance the project in full.
But if it’s not, ACIFA has more options to get additional money, Albritton said.
“We still have legislative authorization from six years ago (for) an additional $230 million,” Albritton told reporters after the meeting. “We also last year passed a bill to authorize an additional $500 million potential for bond. At this juncture, all that we’re going to bond (is a) maximum (of) $195 million, so we’re not even scratching the surface of what’s available if we need.”
The authority approved the hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds in around five minutes with minimal discussion. The bonds will have a maximum maturity of around 20 years with an end date of July 1, 2046, Alina Fountain, a Maynard Nexsen lawyer serving as bond counsel, told ACIFA members.
Design and construction contracts, property transfer
The authority also approved the bidding out of the construction portion of the project during the meeting on Thursday.
Albritton said that ACIFA has already received some bids, but any contracts will come back to the authority for approval.
The Elmore facility is being built under a design-build structure, where a single entity performs both design and construction under a single agreement, but the state is going back to a more traditional process with Escambia.
“We learned,” Albritton said. “We found out some things that took longer and too much controversy and too much unknown (with a design-build). With a system that we’re familiar with, we’ll know what the cost is going to be, and we’ll know what we’re building.”
Albritton said construction is expected to take 30 months once it begins, which he hopes is on Oct. 1.
ACIFA also approved a property transfer between ADOC and ACIFA as part of the construction projects.
Elmore County update
The ADOC previously told Alabama Daily News that it had “reasonable concern” that the construction of the Elmore facility might not be completed by its deadline.
Lawmakers expected the 4,000-bed Elmore Specialized Men’s Facility to be finished by Oct. 15. That deadline was already five months later than initial estimates.
Despite ADOC’s statement, Albritton said he believes the state will take over control of the facility on Oct. 15.
“I think there’s apprehension as always,” he said. “Any time you get close to the ball game, people get nervous. But all I can tell you is we’ve got some pretty good contractual dilemmas for the contractor… We’re not paying another dime. We’ve already paid them all we’re paying, now they’ve got to get it delivered. And if it’s not delivered on time, there’s also repercussions from there.”