Private prisons imperil the public

Gov. Doug Ducey has been a big fan of private prisons — and of the political donations that come his way from fat cat profiteers whom he lets build and run them.

Now he finds himself in the awkward position of having to call for an investigation into the causes of a riot at one of these corner-cutting operations -- in Kingman -- where inmates went on a rampage that damaged the joint to the point of making it "uninhabitable," and, in the process, injured several prison employees and inmates.

Ultimately, a 96-member special DPS tactical unit had to be called in to put down the uprising.

The Utah-based outfit that runs that Kingman complex -- Management & Training Corp. -- says it will pay for the repairs.

Arizona should pay for it to leave and never come back. The notion of private prisons has been pushed by the Ducey-Donor tag team as a way to save the state money, while finding a place to dump its overflow inmate population.

Trouble is, prison security and public safety have suffered as dollar-driven operators have cut costs in order to maximize margins.

The cash-driven Kingman facility has seen multiple security breaches since its grand opening in 2004--including the escape of two inmates in 2010 who ended up killing a vacationing couple in New Mexico.

Talk about cold-blooded. Company profits -- not public protection -- is what drives private prison peddlers. Eight months after those murders, it took a formal threat from the Department of Corrections that it would terminate its contract with MTC within 90 days if it failed to bring site security up to DOC compliance.

Whaddya know? MTC complied.

Meanwhile, in the four years following the New Mexico killings, Kingman has led Arizona's six privately run state pens in inmate fights and assaults.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu -- no fan of turning prisoner populations into business-based venture capital -- argues that "there are certain aspects of government that can be privatized, but most members of the public have sincere reservations when it comes to privatizing public safety."

Likewise, vocal critic of prison privatization schemes and the state director of American Friends Service Committee, Caroline Isaacs, says the Kingman was predictable:

"This is clearly a management issue. If I had to wager, most of the problems in for-profit prisons are related to staffing, and most staffs are new, undertrained and they don't pay their guards well. This is a critical time for the state's leadership to stop and take a very good, long, hard look at what we are doing in corrections in this state."

Pan the cam back to riot-ravaged Kingman, where on-the-spot Ducey was photo-oped assessing a destroyed shower.

Now he's receiving a shower of criticism from those who say he's been putting political ambition ahead of public safety.

Ducey should be more concerned about the citizens he swore to serve and protect than the privatizing hustlers who are making hefty profits by churning out shoddy prisons — and paying him to get away with it.

What do you think? -- Steve Benson