The Idaho Department of Correction will take full control of its Correctional Alternative Placement Program on July 1.
Lawmakers in 2022 approved buying out the remaining lease on the building and in the most recent session gave the thumbs up to spending $2.5 million to take over operations. The building in Kuna is being renamed the Mountain View Transformation Center.
Department of Correction Director Josh Tewalt said in a committee hearing the change would save the state nearly $800,000 annually. That’s about seven percent of its total fiscal year 2022 operating budget, according to legislative documents.
CAPP is a 432-bed facility providing male inmates with rehabilitation and education services - specifically targeted to help parole violators or so-called reentry offenders more successfully return to society after incarceration. It’s been run since its inception in 2010 by Utah-based Management Training Corporation, which runs similar correctional facilities in seven other states.
The company posted a mass layoff notice with the Idaho Department of Labor on May 1 for 82 positions.
In a letter to MTC employees described by a company spokeswoman, Tewalt called the layoffs a business decision "unrelated to the quality and success of their work," and he wrote IDOC hoped to retain as many as possible.
Idaho’s Department of Correction would not make anyone available for an interview, but a spokeswoman confirmed that, to date, 58 of 93 MTC employees laid off as part of the state’s takeover had been retained at CAPP. Other laid off employees found positions elsewhere within IDOC, but exact numbers were not available.
The MTC spokeswoman said employees also had the opportunity to stay with the company at its new job-training facility in Nampa and some had chosen to leave voluntarily as the takeover date for CAPP approached.
