Prison Expansion

Program to Identify DOD Property for Prison Use Could Be Improved Gao ID: GGD-90-110 September 28, 1990

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO determined whether the Commission on Alternative Utilization of Military Facilities and the Department of Defense (DOD) adequately considered military property for conversion to minimum security prisons as an alternative to new prison construction.

GAO found that: (1) as of September 1990, the Commission had not identified any DOD property for conversion to prison use, but the Commission had not completed its review of properties; (2) because the executive order governing the program did not specify that DOD report bases subject to closure to the Commission, DOD excluded them and failed to report some excess military property to the Commission; (3) the Commission's internal control weaknesses for receipt and review of documents resulted in its failure to review 41 percent of DOD-reported properties; (4) the 2,958 properties that the Commission did review may have had inaccurate and inconsistent property descriptions; (5) the Commission judged most of the reviewed properties as not suitable for prison use; and (6) the Commission's enabling legislation did not address such significant correctional needs as the federal government's need for higher security prisons, and state and local governments' needs for additional prison space.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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