Speaker Ledbetter calls for investigation into Elmore prison boondoggle
The $1.25 billion facility was 85% complete, over budget and behind schedule as officials approved another prison contract.
Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter is calling for a full investigation into the construction of the new Elmore County prison facility, according to a letter he sent to Governor Kay Ivey on Thursday.
“On July 20, I met with members of your staff and Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Greg Lovelace to receive an update on the construction of the Kay Ivey Correctional Complex,” Ledbetter wrote. “During that meeting, we were disappointed to learn that the completion date of that facility was being pushed back from October 2026 to ‘sometime between March and May 2027’ and that the management of the project had descended into a complete and total chaotic mess.”
The Alabama Department of Corrections recently revealed that the correctional facility is “only about 85 percent” complete despite the now $1.25 billion prison being more than $635 million over budget and a year behind schedule.
Ledbetter released the letter publicly Thursday following a 7-1 vote by the Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority to enter into a $676 million contract with B.L. Harbert for phase one of the second new prison facility to be built in Escambia County.
The letter, sent before that meeting, had urged Ivey to pause any contract negotiations on the second project considering the financial failures of the Elmore facility.
“Legislative leadership has not been given the opportunity to review a single change order or site rendering. We do not even know what we are being asked to pay for,” Ledbetter wrote. “Additionally, the meeting was called just two days ago. That is the opposite of transparency. I am, again, asking that you do what is best for the people of Alabama and halt construction of the second facility.”
Only state Representative Rex Reynolds, R-Huntsville, voted against the resolution Thursday, citing concerns about massive changes to the plan, including a reduction from 2,056 planned beds to just 1,618 beds. The three lawmakers who serve on the finance authority—Reynolds, Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, and Senator Greg Albritton, R-Atmore—all reported being sent major changes to the contract just 30 minutes before the meeting.
Ledbetter said in his letter that he has been calling for a pause on the construction of the second prison since the July meeting.
“What is disappointing is that, despite having a long and well-documented list of reasons, you have ignored every request from the Legislature to press pause on the construction of the Escambia County facility,” Ledbetter wrote. “Committing taxpayers to another major financial obligation under these circumstances, without first addressing the cost overruns, delays, and apparent failures in project management, is an unacceptable risk to public funds and a failure of fiscal accountability. To make matters worse, you will be exiting office in less than three months, leaving the next administration to clean up the mess.”
Ivey defended the move Thursday, saying she would not “kick the can down the road.”
“When I took office in April of 2017, the challenges plaguing Alabama’s prison system had been neglected for far too long, and I have spent the entirety of my Administration working towards actual Alabama solutions to this decades old Alabama problem,” Ivey said in the statement. “I also committed to the people of Alabama I would run an open, honest and transparent Administration, and we have not wavered from that. In 2021, the Alabama Legislature established the framework for construction of two new men’s facilities in Elmore and Escambia counties, and the state is responsibly executing that plan.
“My Administration has been committed and dually focused on protecting taxpayer dollars while moving forward with these critical and necessary public safety projects. Throughout the appropriations process over the last five years, I am extremely proud that we have been able to save the money necessary to make these facilities a reality in a fiscally responsible way.”
State Representative Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, who has been a leading critic of the plan to build new prisons, said Thursday that the failures should not come as a surprise.
“I could go on and on about how bad ADOC has been under the Ivey administration,” England posted to Facebook. “They were caught stealing organs and just giving them to UAB. They are neither transparent nor honest with anyone including families, legislators, reporters, investigators and auditors. They have wasted millions of taxpayers dollars on legal fees, lawsuits, and paying settlements for corrupt and abusive COs instead of just firing them ...
“Before I go, I want to let you in on a secret. There is no transition plan. There are no plans to close any old facilities. Currently, there are 1,200 state prisoners in county jails all over the State and ADOC has no plans to deal with them. That number grows monthly. An already overcrowded, under-resourced, and severely mismanaged prison system is about to be stretched to its breaking point. IF, and I do mean IF, that new prison ever opens, we will not have enough personnel staff it. The day it opens, it will already be overwhelmed. This isn’t hype. Whoever walks in the Governor’s office next year will be handed a billion dollar crisis on day 1.
“So, with all that history, you shouldn’t be surprised that ADOC and the Ivey administration has failed. However, the blessing in disguise here may be that another administration will get the opportunity to offer us a real Alabama Solution to this Alabama Problem. While she will say that she didn’t kick that can down the road, she certainly did put an extra 2 billion taxpayer dollars in it, light it on fire, and kick it in a ditch as she walked away.”
The contract on the new prison is being handled differently from the Elmore prison, with the finance authority approving all expenditures upfront. Doryan Carlton, the state’s new finance director, assured lawmakers on the finance authority that this approach will require any changes in expenditures to come back before their body, unlike the approach to the first facility’s construction.
The timeline for phase one of the Escambia prison construction is 1,244 days—nearly three and a half years. Lovelace confirmed during the meeting that when the prison opens, it will immediately be understaffed and overcrowded, two of the major issues that have the department facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice. The case will go to trial in November in federal court in Huntsville.
