Governor rejecting CoreCivic a mistake

As we move further away from the governor’s rejection of CoreCivic’s offer, I believe it is imperative that Montanans understand the true nature of the deal our governor inexplicably refused to take with the private U.S. prison operating company.

CoreCivic’s final offer was for a two-year contract extension at a daily rate of $75.48 per inmate. Given that the state can house up to 600 prisoners in Shelby, the maximum total value of the contract extension would have been approximately $33 million.

In exchange for this new daily rate, CoreCivic agreed to surrender $35.7 million of the...