JUNEAU -- The megaprison being built in the Mat-Su so far is coming in on time and within budget, but some legislators still are pondering whether a private company could run it more cheaply than the state.

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A state deputy corrections commissioner told lawmakers Tuesday evening that his department did a quick analysis of that prospect after being directed to do so last year by lawmakers.

The single-page report by the Department of Corrections suggests a private contractor could run Goose Creek Correctional Center for about $6.5 million a year less than the state. The state expects to run Goose Creek for just over $68 million a year, compared with close to $62 million for a private operator.

But to get a more precise accounting, the department would need to request proposals from private prison operators, said Dwayne Peeples, deputy corrections commissioner. That's the only way to tell for sure what they would charge the state to run the prison, he said.

The $240 million, 1,536-bed Goose Creek prison is expected to open in 2012. Currently, 831 Alaska prisoners are being housed Outside, most of them in a Cornell Companies Inc. private prison in Hudson, Colo., according to the Corrections Department. The opening of Goose Creek will allow them all to return to Alaska.

Fairbanks Republican Rep. Mike Kelly, who took over drafting the state corrections budget last year, urged his House budget subcommittee members to tour the prison under construction to get a better feel for it.

"This is like a little city," he said at the subcommittee hearing Tuesday evening.

Peeples said he would need to send official notice to four prison unions before putting out a request for private-prison proposals. Union contracts require that they be alerted. He said he didn't want to take that step without further direction from lawmakers.

"My first cut on it, before we go into real detailed analysis, is that it may be feasible to privatize it," Peeples said. "It's a controversial approach. Maybe you could save $6 million. Maybe you couldn't save anything."

The hearing room was packed with correctional officers, who in the past have fought private prisons in Alaska.

"Guys, don't get all jacked out of shape," Kelly, who has been leading the effort, told the hearing audience. Lawmakers are taking a look, he said, but that doesn't mean anything will happen.

A BAD HISTORY

Some legislators who aren't on the budget panel said they have no desire for a private prison in Alaska, especially considering that the far-reaching federal corruption investigation of Alaska politics began with an inquiry related to private prisons.

Veco Corp., the defunct oil field services contractor at the center of oil tax corruption cases, once was part of a consortium pushing a private prison. Bill Weimar, once king of Alaska's private halfway houses, pleaded guilty to corruption charges in 2008 after funneling $20,000 in 2004 to help a state legislative candidate who supported his interest in building a private prison.

State Sen. Charlie Huggins, R-Wasilla, said Tuesday there's an "odor" about the prospect and he doesn't see any momentum for privatizing Goose Creek.

Another Republican, Rep. Bill Stoltze of Chugiak, said public safety operations are one part of government that shouldn't be privatized.

"We have a whole sordid history at the attempts of privatizing prisons that give us an idea of how bad an idea it is. You can just look at the past proposals and how many dead bodies there are, metaphorically," Stoltze said. "It hasn't been a good process."

Legislators have backed successive plans for a private prison in Anchorage, Delta Junction, Kenai and Whittier, but none ever materialized because of resistance from local communities and unions.

SAVINGS ON BENEFITS

In its quick cost analysis, the department assumed that a private prison operator would have the same number of staff members, 383, as if the state ran it, because the state could write specifications to require that level of staffing, Peeples said. The study did not factor in administrative overhead for either side, he said.

To estimate a private operator's costs, the department started with financial information included in bids last year from companies that wanted to house the Alaskans now in Colorado, Peeples said. It also reviewed the literature on private prison costs.

Under this first look, the sole difference in projected state vs. private costs came in employee benefits. Benefits amount to 59 percent of payroll in the state system, compared to 23 percent in the private arena, under the analysis. Private prison companies pay mid- and upper management 20 to 30 percent more than government, but pay line staff less, according to the state report.

One budget panel member, Rep. Scott Kawasaki, D-Fairbanks, said he opposes a private prison, but also said that if there is going to be further study it should go beyond financials to include safety, staffing, training and recidivism.

A spokesman for Cornell, Charles Seigel, said the company isn't lobbying for a private prison this go around but if the state wants a private operator for Goose Creek, "we'll talk to them."

Gov. Sean Parnell said his administration isn't pushing for a private prison. "There would have to be a significant plan backed by the Legislature to make that happen before we go down that route," Parnell said.

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