MONTGOMERY — The new $1 billion Elmore County prison will be named after Gov. Kay Ivey.
Members of the Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority unanimously approved a resolution on Wednesday naming the Elmore County facility the Governor Kay Ivey Correctional Complex.
The members of the authority are Ivey, Alabama Department of Corrections commissioner John Hamm, director of finance Bill Poole, State Rep. Rex Reynolds (R-Huntsville), State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore), State Sen. Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro) and director of Pardon and Paroles Cam Ward. Ivey, Hamm and Reynolds weren’t in attendance at the Wednesday meeting.
The new 4,000-bed prison in Elmore County is projected to cost $1.08 billion. The targeted completion date is May 2026.
The Alabama Legislature approved $1.2 billion in funding for two 4,000-bed facilities in 2021 in response to a 2020 lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice concerning poor prison sanitation, violence between inmates, excessive force from staff and sexual assault.
Lawmakers are still examining ways to fund a second prison in Escambia County since the Elmore County project was way over budget.
Albritton told 1819 News after the meeting, “Let’s face it when we went into this project we were looking at $750 million for both and now one is $1.08 billion so we’ve done well in financing and getting this together so we can build Elmore and getting Escambia moving but we’ve still got to come up with more monies.”
Albritton said lawmakers would look at “tightening the belt and looking at what we can do” to pay for the new Escambia prison.
“When we floated bonds last time that was based on $750 million. We were only able to sell $500 million. Circumstances are different now and we are going to have to look at doing some changes there maybe,” he added. “With government, time is not on our side. Costs are not going down and then the other aspect of it is we’ve still got a women’s prison that’s part of it. We’ve still got the renovations that we’ve got to deal with, lots of other issues we’ve got to deal with. It’s a much larger project than just throwing up some walls.”
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email caleb.taylor@1819News.com.
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