California shells out $622 million for new prisons

Posted by IronPlanet on Mar 11, 2012 5:41:00 PM

California plans to spend more than $600 million on new prison construction to help with overcrowding across the state, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Eleven California counties will receive a combined $622 million in order to build local prisons. Some prisoners will be transferred from the existing state prison system. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the overcrowding in California state prisons constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The state has been tasked by the court with reducing its total inmates from 131,200 to 110,000 by mid-2013. This will partially be accomplished by moving existing state inmates to the new local prisons.

The new funding is phase two of Governor Jerry Brown's plan for the prison system. When combined with funding issued to 11 more counties last year, $1.2 billion has been put toward the project thus far.

"This provides a major boost for California counties to house local inmates safely and effectively," Matthew Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told the news source.

Construction companies competing for a government contract, like prison construction, will need to keep costs low. One way to do this is by buying used construction equipment online through IronPlanet, as it's often cheaper to buy used than new.

Topics: Construction, Industry Headlines