Susan W. Gardner: Privatized prisons objections

Regarding the Nov. 2 news article “Gov. McCrory complains about N&O prison story”: Did budget director Lee Roberts really figure that a 30,000-square-foot building, unoccupied, with a gravel floor, equaled a functioning factory in maintenance costs?

Did Roberts compare the health insurance and pension costs for state prison employees and Keith Corp. prison employees and find privatized costs lower? If so, are we sure state prison employees are currently overpaid?

Would shortchanging prison workers’ benefits get an equal or better quality employee? Did Roberts include the state’s cost of maintaining security systems at the three Keith Corp. prisons? On whose side of the ledger?

The Keith Corp. has put time, energy and money into winning state contracts for prison maintenance and convincing legislators to clear away some hurdles. There must be a very big payoff at stake.

Personally, I’ve heard nothing good about privatized prisons. As a taxpayer, I object to the creation and extension of private contracts for prison maintenance, whether done legally or not. Stop pay to play.

This story was originally published November 11, 2015 at 5:48 PM with the headline "Susan W. Gardner: Privatized prisons objections."