Berks commissioner researches privatizing county prison

Mark C. Scott has been thinking a lot lately about the fate of the Berks County Prison.

The longtime county commissioner pointed out that most officials agree the 84-year-old building has outlived its useful life and needs to be replaced. But financing the construction of a new prison will be a daunting task.

“A new jail will likely cost more than $100 million and lead to additional tax increases,” he said. “So the issue in my mind here, looking at this very large expenditure, is to look at how we can minimize the financial impact of constructing a new jail.”

And to the surprise of his colleagues Thursday, Scott revealed he has started to research some nontraditional options.

He told them that he has reached out to a private prison operator, whom he declined to name, to see if it could offer any advantages as the board contemplates the construction and evaluates possible changes to the operation of the jail. He said his goal was to determine whether privatizing the services would result in potential savings to taxpayers.

“Knowing that entrenched special interests would present strident opposition to even the thought of privatizing our prison, I wanted to cross a certain threshold in my mind where I felt it would be worthwhile to pursue it,” he said. “I didn’t want to burden the whole board with the controversy that will probably ensue throwing this out without a little preliminary research.”

Scott said that now that he has more information, he is convinced privatization would offer savings that are too tempting to ignore.

Commissioners Christian Y. Leinbach and Kevin S. Barnhardt said they would keep an open mind moving forward.

“We have an obligation to look at the pros and cons of every option,” Leinbach said. “This is a major decision and the only option that I believe is unrealistic is to ignore the real conditions of the existing jail. We can all agree on that.”

Barnhardt, who has served as chairman of the prison board for the last decade, said he wants to explore all options. He agreed with Scott that leasing the construction and maintenance of the prison would probably save the county money. But when it comes to privatizing the operation of the jail, he said state regulations may present roadblocks.

Contact Karen Shuey: 610-371-5081 or kshuey@readingeagle.com.