Private Prison Payments Outpace Local Jails

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — State payments to private correctional facilities have increased by nearly 30 percent since 1998, while reimbursements to county jails for housing state inmates have remained stagnant, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.

Payments to the South Central Correctional Facility, which is run by Corrections Corporation of America, have increased by almost 23 percent from fiscal year 1998, while payments to the CCA-managed Hardeman County Correctional Facility have risen 29 percent, according to a DOC report.

However, as daily per-inmate costs have risen steadily, state payments to local jails for housing state inmates have remained at $35 per day since 1994.