Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) sent Governor Kay Ivey a letter Thursday asking her to halt construction of the state’s second new men’s prison in Escambia County and calling for a full investigation into the first one.
The letter was delivered by email hours before the Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority met to vote on funding the Escambia project. Ledbetter wrote that the meeting was called two days earlier and that legislative leadership had not seen a single change order or site rendering.
“We do not even know what we are being asked to pay for,” Ledbetter wrote. “That is the opposite of transparency.”
Ledbetter said he met with members of the Governor’s staff and Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Greg Lovelace on July 20 for an update on the Governor Kay Ivey Correctional Complex in Elmore County. He wrote that the completion date was being pushed from October 2026 to “sometime between March and May 2027.”
“During that meeting, we were disappointed, but ultimately unsurprised, to learn that the completion date of that facility was again being pushed back,” Ledbetter wrote, “and that the management of the project had descended into a complete and total chaotic mess. It was clear during that meeting that ADOC had essentially lost all control and was more or less afraid to push too hard on the contractor, Caddell Construction, out of fear that they might walk away from the project altogether.”
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
ADOC announced on October 16 that Caddell missed its final completion deadline and that the authority was withholding $14.2 million in liquidated damages. The department said the complex was 85% complete.
Ledbetter wrote that he told the Governor’s staff on July 20 and in several later conversations that he opposed moving forward in Escambia County while the Elmore facility is “$635M+ over budget and one year behind schedule.”
“What is disappointing is that, despite having a long and well-documented list of reasons, you have ignored every request from the Legislature to press pause on the construction of the Escambia County facility,” he wrote.
The finance authority approved up to $195 million in new bonds for the Escambia prison in August. The bonds sold on October 6 for $190,190,000. The Alabama Department of Finance said Wednesday the buyer was Regions Capital Advantage, a division of Regions Bank.
Ledbetter wrote that the authority is “stacked with Executive Branch public officials who are ultimately accountable to you.” Governor Ivey and Commissioner Lovelace sit on the body alongside State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore) and other legislators. He put the second prison’s projected cost at close to $1 billion and the two-prison total at well over $2 billion. The Legislature authorized $1.3 billion for both facilities in 2021.
“Committing taxpayers to another major financial obligation under these circumstances, without first addressing the cost overruns, delays, and apparent failures in project management, is an unacceptable risk to public funds and a failure of fiscal accountability,” Ledbetter wrote. “To make matters worse, you will be exiting office in less than three months, leaving the next administration to clean up the mess.”
He also made two requests of the governor.
“I am, again, asking that you do what is best for the people of Alabama and halt construction of the second facility,” he wrote. “Additionally, taxpayers deserve to know what has transpired during the failed construction of the first facility, and I am calling for a full investigation.”
“No one is disputing that Alabama needs new prisons, but this is simply not the way to go about it.”
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
