Last week, during an interview with Mobile radio station FM Talk 106.5's "The Jeff Poor Show," State Rep. Rex Reynolds (R-Huntsville) discussed the impact of inflation and reduced federal funding on the construction of two super prisons in the state.
The facilities mentioned are set to be located in Elmore and Escambia Counties, with each featuring 4,000 beds for inmates. In a 2021 special session, the Alabama Legislature approved $1.3 billion in funding for the construction of the prisons. Despite the significant allocation, the price for Elmore County's Governor Kay Ivey Correctional Complex increased by over 50% in March 2023, leaving enough state funding for only one of the prisons. The financial shortfall forced lawmakers to seek additional funding for the Escambia location.
"We do know inflation is built into a lot of this. It's certainly on the construction of our prisons," said Reynolds. "We'll soon go out on our RFP with our second super prison down in the Escambia area. So, we continue to monitor that, but we've got to begin to pull those budgets back. Again, the economy's strong. The general fund to date is up about $88 million over our 24 receipts. So '25 remains strong. But still, if you take all those federal dollars out, it will be smaller."
The lawmaker detailed the adverse circumstances that have slowed the construction of the two locations.
"First of all, the first 4,000-bed prison is our medical unit. So, that's kind of high intensity, a lot of equipment there, especially for both mental health and physical health of other inmates. Concrete prices and labor alone on that existing project have now doubled in price," Reynolds continued. "That's a major part of construction on facilities like that. So, we'll still see some high numbers. We certainly hope we see some value in it. We already had contractors walk away from those beds there. So, we were very narrow in scope going into the construction side of that anyway."
"I do think we've got some lessons learned coming out of that prison, and we'll be more focused on the second time around, related to pricing and how the contract's written," he added.
The Governor Kay Ivey Correctional Complex is scheduled to open in May 2026. Initial site construction for the Escambia County location is scheduled to begin in January 2026, with general construction expected to continue through January 2029.
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