Governor Kay Ivey said Thursday evening she “refuses to kick the can down the road” on Alabama’s second new men’s prison, after the state finance authority she sits on approved a $676,056,865 construction contract for the Escambia County facility on a 6-1 vote.
Alabama Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) requested hours earlier that she halt the project and investigate the first one.
“While I cannot speak for others, I am someone who refuses to kick the can down the road,” Governor Ivey said in a statement after the vote. “We are doing not only what is now required by law but also what is right and necessary. I am proud we are officially moving forward with construction on this second facility.”
Ledbetter’s letter told the Governor she would be “exiting office in less than three months, leaving the next administration to clean up the mess.” Her statement did not mention the Speaker by name.
I think the world of Governor Ivey, but her administration’s handling of the construction of Alabama’s two new men’s prisons is flat out wrong.
Taxpayers deserve to understand what has transpired during the failed construction of the first facility before they are asked to foot… pic.twitter.com/24Kz3RVUcT
— Nathaniel Ledbetter (@RepLedbetter) October 29, 2026
“When I took office in April of 2017, the challenges plaguing Alabama’s prison system had been neglected for far too long, and I have spent the entirety of my Administration working towards actual Alabama solutions to this decades-old Alabama problem,” Governor Ivey said. “I also committed to the people of Alabama I would run an open, honest and transparent Administration, and we have not wavered from that.”
“In 2021, the Alabama Legislature established the framework for construction of two new men’s facilities in Elmore and Escambia counties, and the state is responsibly executing that plan,” she continued. “My Administration has been committed and dually focused on protecting taxpayer dollars while moving forward with these critical and necessary public safety projects. Throughout the appropriations process over the last five years, I am extremely proud that we have been able to save the money necessary to make these facilities a reality in a fiscally responsible way.”
“Public safety is a priority for my Administration and the Legislature, and I am proud of what we accomplished together.”
The Alabama Department of Corrections put the overall Escambia project budget at $846,443,827. Change orders approved Thursday cut the first phase from 2,056 beds to 1,618. The authority sold $190,190,000 in bonds for the project earlier this month.
State Rep. Rex Reynolds (R-Huntsville), chairman of the House General Fund budget committee, cast the lone no vote.
“My no vote did not mean that I don’t think we need to build a new prison. I’ve been very supportive of building new prisons, but we’re in the situation we’re in currently in Elmore, and we’re working through that. I do question our ability to manage two projects of this scope at one time,” Reynolds told 1819 News. “I received a briefing on this vote yesterday, and then I received the change orders today within one hour before the vote. I wouldn’t put my colleagues in that position to vote for $853 million of taxpayers’ money without my due diligence.”
State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore), chairman of the Senate General Fund budget committee, voted yes. The Escambia site sits in his district next to Fountain Correctional Facility.
“The Elmore (project) clouds much of what we’re trying to accomplish,” Albritton said during the meeting. “There are lots of things that have me concerned with this too, but we’ve got to move forward with this. We don’t have an option. This is our obligation to move forward with this.”
Ledbetter’s letter put the two-prison total at well over $2 billion against the $1.3 billion the Legislature authorized in 2021. ADOC announced on October 16 that the Governor Kay Ivey Correctional Complex in Elmore County was 85% complete and that the state was withholding $14.2 million from contractor Caddell Construction after it missed its final deadline.
The Speaker’s request for a full investigation into the Elmore project has drawn no response from the Governor’s Office.
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
