Completion of new Elmore County mega prison delayed
State officials said construction was 85 percent complete as missed deadlines triggered millions in damages on the costly $1 billion project.
The Alabama Department of Corrections announced over the weekend a delay in completing the state's newest correctional facility in Elmore County after the project's design-build contractor missed its deadline.
The department said in a statement Friday that construction continued at the 300-acre site despite Montgomery-based Caddell Construction's failure to meet the contractual deadline of October 15. More than $14 million in liquidated damages are now due, according to the department, with an additional $7.1 million due if the project is not completed by November 16.
"Caddell remains responsible for completing the work for the final guaranteed maximum price, under the terms of the design-build agreement," the department said Friday. "... The schedule, timing of completion, and cost implications will continue to be assessed."
In the same statement, the department said the Elmore County site "has advanced to an estimated more than 85 percent completion."
The price tag for the facility, named the Governor Kay Ivey Correctional Complex, has grown from $623 million to well over $1 billion. This is the second time the project's completion date has been pushed back.
The construction site is within sight of Staton Correctional Facility and the since-closed Draper Correctional Facility near Wetumpka.
The state approved a $1.3 billion prison construction and restoration package in 2021 that included funding for two 4,000-bed prisons in Elmore and Escambia counties and approval for a new 1,000-bed women's facility. Of the original funds the state set aside, $400 million came from federal COVID-19 relief aid through the American Rescue Plan.
An initial state bond sale of approximately $750 million took place in late June of that year, generating only $509 million for the prison construction project, around $200 million short of the initial value. In 2023, the spending cap for the Elmore County site rose from $623 million to $975 million.
The vast majority of the funds earmarked in 2021 for construction of the new correctional facilities have since been spent on the Elmore County site alone. Construction has not begun at the Escambia County site, which has received its own bond issuance of nearly $200 million.
A trial in the U.S. Department of Justice's lawsuit against Alabama is scheduled for later this year. In an amended complaint filed in 2022, the department alleged that systemic overcrowding and understaffing in each major correctional facility in the state have directly led to increased cases of physical and sexual violence among incarcerated people.
In the 2019 Justice Department report that preceded the lawsuit, investigators concluded that "new facilities alone will not resolve the contributing factors to the overall unconstitutional condition of ADOC prisons."
