A bid by a Quaker group to stop contracts for new private prison beds from being awarded in Arizona was thwarted last week.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Arthur Anderson refused to grant an injunction requested by anti-private prison group American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to stop the Arizona Department of Corrections (DOC) from awarding private prison operators contracts to build facilities housing up to 5,000 new beds in the state.

The DOC could not announce bid results before Sept. 16, which marked the end of the public comment period for the decision process, but could now make its decision about where new private prison facilities will be built anytime. Winslow is being considered as the location of 1,000 new beds, which would be operated by LaSalle Corrections of Louisiana.

The AFSC had hoped to stall the decision until a report the DOC is preparing that compares private and public prison operations in

Arizona is completed. The DOC has said it expects the report to be complete before January; AFSC wants the public to have the benefit of reviewing the document before DOC awards new private prison contracts, citing concerns regarding security and public safety.

In denying the injunction, Anderson said the AFSC had not sufficiently shown that not issuing the restraining order would cause irreparable harm.

Anderson said he would consider a future request from the group and set a hearing date for Sept. 20 to further review the case.

AFSC contends the DOC has violated a state statute requiring thorough bi-annual reviews of private prison operations and requirements related to costs of operating private prisons.

DOC Director of Communications Barrett Marson said it is up to the legislature to determine what needs to be done since the DOC’s own cost comparisons show that prison beds in private medium-security facilities do cost the state more than state-run medium-security facilities.

Caroline Isaacs, Arizona director of ASFC, wants the DOC to be held accountable for not completing the bi-annual reviews in accordance with statute requirements. She said the state has never completed such a review since the law was established in 1987. Marson says the reports have been completed in the past, but they were not completed during the previous DOC administration’s tenure and current DOC Director Charles Ryan is currently working on his first review since taking office in 2009.

“There should be an airing in open court of the issue of the department’s non-compliance with the required review. It could be embarrassing and costly to the state to have to rescind contracts later, if the Department of Corrections is found to have violated the statute,” she said.