The Alabama Department of Corrections has declined to release documents – including communications with a contractor – showing why the estimated cost of building a prison in Elmore County rose 56 percent in 11 months, to almost $1 billion. The department only shared a summary showing the increases in broad categories.

AL.com had requested the documents on March 28 and received the response from the ADOC today. The ADOC said it might be able to provide more information once a final cost on the prison is determined, which it expects to know this summer. The ADOC’s letter is attached to the end of this article.

In April 2022, the state entered a contract with Caddell Construction to build a 4,000-bed “Specialized Men’s Prison Facility,” which will include space to provide medical and mental health care for inmates. The contract carried an “initial guaranteed maximum price” of $623 million. That price tag was close to the estimates announced in October 2021, when the Legislature approved $1.3 billion to build two prisons, the Elmore County facility and a second 4,000-bed prison in Escambia County. (The state does not yet have a contract on the Escambia prison.)

In March, the Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority, a panel that includes Gov. Kay Ivey, several state lawmakers and other officials, passed a resolution amending the contract on the Elmore County prison and raising the “initial guaranteed maximum price” to $975 million.

State Finance Director Bill Poole said at that time the main factors in the increase were inflation and design changes, including changes made in efforts to comply with court orders.

AL.com filed a request with the ADOC under the state’s public records law to get more information about the cost increases. AL.com requested documents and communication between the state and Caddell about those design changes, material costs, and other factors that caused the increase.

ADOC Executive Counsel Carrie Ellis McCollum responded in a letter that AL.com received by email today. McCollum wrote that “the State is limited in its ability to provide the requested records at this time due to the ongoing bid process under the Design-Build Agreement with Caddell Construction. While activities to procure the necessary services, goods and materials for the Elmore Specialized Men’s Prison Facility are ongoing, release of the requested information may adversely impact bid pricing and be detrimental to a competitive procurement process.”

In general terms, McCollum gave the same reasons for the cost increases that Poole gave back in March. A summary attached to the letter listed $350 million in increases in broad categories, including $183 million in escalated construction costs last year, $47 million in escalated costs through June of this year, $36 million for vocational space, $44 million for the central utility plant, and $40 million for court order compliance, lawsuit mitigation, and security augmentation.

“This summary reflects cost increases incurred due to cost escalation/inflation; design changes to comply with court orders and better address issues identified through litigation such as the provision of health and mental healthcare and enhancement/augmentation of prison security; increased vocational education and other programming space; and changes that decrease future lifecycle and maintenance costs,” McCollum wrote. “Please note that these calculations are based on future expectations and may vary from the final procurement numbers determined via the competitive bid process.”

Poole and top lawmakers have said the state will still proceed with the Escambia prison, even though the Legislature at some point will have to come up with more money on top of the $1.3 billion approved in 2021.

The amendment to the contract on the Elmore County prison approved in March extended the completion date by four months, which would mean the prison will be finished in mid-2026.

Some of Alabama’s older prisons will close when the new ones are finished. Alabama’s prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state in December 2020 alleging that conditions in men’s prisons violate the Constitution because of the violence, drugs, weapons, and other problems. The ADOC is also embroiled in a nine-year-old lawsuit over mental health care, medical care, and accommodations for inmates with disabilities.

Read more: Alabama’s billion-dollar prison plan does not end the overcrowding