Anchorage Municipality to see higher costs for housing prisoners

The state Department of Corrections announced Thursday that it is increasing the amount the municipality of Anchorage pays to house city prisoners in state correctional facilities. The rate hike affects Anchorage Correctional Complex, which houses mostly Anchorage area offenders. The increase will raise the current fee of $2 million annually to $2.9 million starting October 1.

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“We’re not recovering actual costs,” DOC spokesman Corey Allen-Young said. “We’re not even getting the full amount of what we could charge. We are not trying to make things tough on the city. We tasked to maintain safety, to house inmates. We are trying to make it safe and efficient at our institutions, and, you know, if the lawmakers are not passing a fiscal plan, the inability to have funds, we have to make ends meet.”

Allen-Young said the flat rate the city pays does not include state prisoner costs such as food, medical treatment and transportation. Those costs are paid for by the state, which saves the city about $1 million a year, he said.

Anchorage rates have not changed since 1999.

Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz reacted strongly to the announcement. In an email, Berkowitz said his city is paying the price for the state’s failure to resolve its fiscal crisis.

DOC has housing agreements with other cities: Bethel, Ketchikan and Fairbanks pay the current prison daily bed rate, and are not likely to see an increase, but Allen-Young said the department is looking at it’s contract with the city of Juneau, which pays a flat rate similar to Anchorage.