Mississippi Department of Corrections’ FY 2000 Cost Per Inmate Day
Executive Summary
Background
During its 1994 special session, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 2005 (now codified as MISS. CODE ANN. § 47-5-1201 et seq.) to address short- and long-term bed capacity within the state’s correctional system. The bill created the State Prison Emergency Construction and Management Board to expedite the contracting and construction of proposed public and private prison facilities authorized by the bill.
MISS. CODE ANN. § 47-5-1211 (1) (3) (a) states:
No contract for private incarceration shall be entered into unless the cost of the private operation, including the state’s cost for monitoring the private operation, offers a cost savings of at least ten percent (10%) to the Department of Corrections for at least the same level and quality of service offered by the Department of Corrections.
This section also requires PEER to contract annually with a certified public accounting firm to establish a state cost per inmate day for a comparable state facility. Originally, cost was to be established for medium security inmates only. In subsequent years, MDOC has planned the housing of different classifications of prisoners and PEER has provided cost estimates for those classifications as well.
The law further requires that the state cost per inmate day be certified annually by a CPA and that the certified cost be used as the basis for verifying the ten percent savings required for private contractor costs.
Chapter 964, Laws of 1996 (Local and Private), established the East Mississippi Correctional Facility Authority. The bill authorized such authority to contract with MDOC for the private incarceration in a psychiatric facility of up to 1,000 prisoners in compliance with the provisions of MISS. CODE ANN. Sections 47-5-1211 through 47-5-1227.
Cost Per Day Determination
Smith, Turner & Reeves, P.A., provided cost per inmate day determinations for all security levels of inmates combined (i.e., MDOC’s general cost per inmate day) and also on the basis of security classification (i.e., minimum, medium, or maximum) of inmates. Smith, Turner & Reeves also provided a cost per inmate day determination for a psychiatric correctional facility.
MDOC’s FY 2000 general cost per inmate day for a 1,000-bed facility totaled $49.92 and included the following components:
| Direct Costs | |
| Basic housing & visitation | $29.86 |
| Education & training | 1.95 |
| Food | 2.47 |
| Farming | .20 |
| Medical | 5.07 |
| Parole Board | .10 |
| Allocated Administrative Costs | 2.70 |
| Total Operating Costs | $42.35 |
| Annual Debt Service | 7.57 |
| Total Average Daily Costs | $49.92 |
MDOC’s FY 2000 costs per inmate day for individual security classifications in a 1,000-bed facility were as follows: minimum security, $42.90; medium security, $45.33; and, maximum security, $63.32. MDOC’s FY 2000 costs per inmate day for security classifications in a 500-bed psychiatric correctional facility were $59.81 for medium security and $66.20 for maximum security.
PEER cautions the reader that cost figures presented in this report represent actual costs to MDOC as required by law and do not represent costs for service delivery under a "most efficient organization." Thus PEER believes that private prison contracts should yield savings significantly above the ten percent required by law. See page 20 of the report for examples of areas where savings may be achieved from more efficient contracting.