Mississippi Department of Corrections’ FY 2001 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, and 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 and Reeves also provided a cost per inmate day determination for a psychiatric facility.
MDOC’s FY 2001 general cost per inmate day for a 1,000 bed facility totaled $45.91 and included the following components:
| Direct Costs: | |
| Basic housing & visitation: | |
| Salary costs | $20.53 |
| Other costs | 5.32 |
| Education & training | 1.69 |
| Food | 2.22 |
| Farming | 0.28 |
| Medical | 5.58 |
| Parole Board | 0.08 |
| Allocated administrative costs | 2.64 |
| Total Operating costs | $38.34 |
| Annual Debt Service | 7.57 |
| Total Average Daily Costs | $45.91 |
MDOC’s FY 2001 costs per inmate day for individual security classifications in a 1,000-bed facility were as follows: minimum security, $38.71; medium security, $42.93; and maximum security, $66.62. MDOC’s FY 2001 costs per inmate day for security classifications in a 500-bed psychiatric correctional facility were $55.00 for medium security and $70.10 for maximum security.
Negotiating Additional Savings in Contracts with Private Prisons
PEER cautions the reader that, as required by law, the cost figures presented in the following report represent actual costs to the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC). State law requires that private prisons represent at least a 10% savings to MDOC’s costs for the same level and quality of services. However, this is a minimum savings requirement; the state may certainly save more than ten percent over the certified state cost per inmate day if it can obtain such through negotiations. Therefore, when the Department of Corrections negotiates an annual per inmate per diem for contract payments to private prisons, the department should subtract from the certified state cost per inmate day any costs borne solely by the state and negotiators should give due consideration to reducing other costs.
For example, when negotiating an annual per inmate per diem with private prisons, MDOC should subtract $8.15 from the $42.93 certified state medium-security inmate cost per day for costs related to debt service, records, inmate classification, offender services, and the parole board. Another $9.62 representing medical, administrative services, education, and training should be negotiable because the state’s expenses in this area differ from the expenses incurred by private prisons.