Prisons go up for sale as incarceration rates decline
As incarceration rates fall, local governments are left with empty jails that are expensive to maintain.
The result: An increasing number of prisons are up for sale, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports in a story summarized at the newspaper’s Law Blog. Some jails have been repurposed as hotels, especially those with historic architecture in city centers. “But most prisons are drab structures located in rural areas,” the story says, “offering few opportunities for reuse.”
In New York, for example, the number of state and federal prisoners dropped by 8.8 percent. Since 2011, the state has closed 17 prisons and juvenile facilities and has managed to find buyers for 10 of them. The sales price, however, is often far less than the cost of building the facilities.
Fewer inmates are in prison as a result of reduced crime and relaxation of harsh drug laws. “There’s a prisoner shortage,” says Littlefield, Texas, city manager Mike Arismendez, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Littlefield’s prison has been closed since 2009, but the town still has to pay $8 million in outstanding debt for the building.
An empty jail in Multnomah County, Oregon, costs $300,000 a year to maintain, the story says. So far, the county has not been able to sell the facility. “We got stuck with the albatross,” county spokesman David Austin told the Wall Street Journal.
