Private Prison Deal Voided

In a sudden reversal, the state has abandoned plans to reopen a private prison in Bakersfield, citing an unexpected dip in the inmate population, officials said Thursday.

The move came less than a month after state corrections officials issued a written justification for granting no-bid contracts to two companies by citing “a drastic increase in the prison population.”

California Department of Corrections officials closed three minimum-security private prisons in December 2003, saying that the number of prisoners had dropped. At the end of 2004, prison officials concluded that the population was rising and rushed to sign no-bid contracts to reopen two of the facilities, including Mesa Verde in Bakersfield.

The action Thursday halted a one-year, $5.75-million deal with Civigenics, a Massachusetts company, to reopen the 340-bed Mesa Verde facility.

“We turned to the privates because our population was up,” said Todd Slosek, a corrections spokesman. “But the numbers are down now and we do not need that type of bed any more.”

Representatives of Civigenics could not be reached for comment late Thursday. The company operates facilities in 14 states. It recently hired two veteran California Department of Corrections officials and appeared to be positioning itself to expand operations here.

Plans are proceeding to open the second private prison in the Central Valley town of McFarland. That 244-bed institution is to be operated by the GEO Group, based in Florida. GEO had run the McFarland prison for 15 years. After the state ended its contract in 2003, GEO hired a consultant and a lobbying firm close to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration and won back the business.

The initial decision to reopen the prisons prompted criticism from the union that represents state prison guards and opposes private facilities. It also spurred a call for an investigation by Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), chairwoman of two committees that oversee the prison system. The state uses private prisons to house about 2,500 of its 163,000 prisoners.

Mesa Verde was founded by a Bakersfield firm, Alternative Programs, which ran the facility from 1989 until 2003.

After the state moved to hire Civigenics, Gary White, president of Alternative Programs, protested, contending that he should have been allowed to bid on the contract.

In an interview Thursday, White noted that he sent the department a request for all records related to the decision to hire Civigenics.

Times staff writer Jenifer Warren contributed to this report.