Alabama lawmakers say they have questions about Governor Kay Ivey's proposal to lease three megaprisons built by private companies as a partial solution to the state's ongoing prison crisis.
The governor's administration is pursuing a plan to hire private companies to build the prisons which would then be leased back to the state and run by the Department of Corrections.
Legislative leaders say they're not objecting to the proposal but want to make sure the leases don't become a drain on the state's budget.
The U.S. Justice Department last year said violent and crowded conditions in Alabama prisons violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.