Five firms bid on prison contract

Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Five companies including the present operator have submitted bids to the state to run all or part of the state women's prison in North Las Vegas.

State Purchasing Agent Kim Perondi said Monday the five filed their proposals before the 2 p.m. deadline. She said the evaluation committee will begin reading the documents and scoring them individually.

"In the middle of November we will try to meet and take a consensus of the scores," said Perondi, who declined to say how many evaluators were on the team.

When the state opened the prison in 1997, it hired Corrections Corp. of America of Nashville, Tenn., to operate it, and the company has held the contract since.

Perondi said the bidders were Corrections Corp.; Cornell Companies of Houston; Correctional Medical Services of St. Louis; Prison Health Services of Brentwood, Tenn.; and Civigenics of Marlborough, Mass.

The bidders could submit proposals to run the full prison or just the medical or the correctional programs. Perondi declined to say what the companies bid on.

The bids and their prices are confidential until a contract is awarded.

For this fiscal year, the state is budgeted to pay about $9 million to the contractor. The inmate population has been as high as 560 but it was down to 440 inmates as of last week as a number of prisoners were transferred earlier to the less-expensive Jean honor camp.

The contract for Corrections Corp. runs through October 2004. Darrel J. Rexwinkel, deputy director in charge of finances for the state Department of Corrections, said the bidding was opened again in hopes of getting a lower rate. The state now pays $46.40 a day per inmate at North Las Vegas.

Renny Ashleman, an attorney for Corrections Corp., has said his company has lost money on the operation and he doubts the state will get a lower rate.

There have been differences of opinion in the past between the state and Corrections Corp. over the contract, in large part over medical costs.

The women's prison is the only full-service prison operated by a private company in Nevada. The state has a contract with the private firm Correctional Medical Services to provide the medical services for male inmates at the state prison in Ely.