CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire is weighing bids from four companies that are interested in running the state’s prisons.

The Concord Monitor says that doesn’t mean the state will go with a private company rather that retain its management of its prisons and inmates.

However, the idea may have more political support now than it did last time it was considered, in 2004. Still, doubts about cost savings and inmate security are as strong as ever.

The state employees’ union fought privatization eight years ago and opposes it now. But the union’s president, Diana Lacey, tells the Monitor that the for-profit prison industry has grown and gained influence with state and federal legislators.

Lacey said a private company needs to keep inmate beds full and spend less on security, salary and re-habilitation programs in order to make money.

Meanwhile, the state’s goal is to rehabilitate inmates and keep them out of prison in the future. “Those are totally conflicting viewpoints,” she said, according to the Monitor.

The bids were requested by legislative order. Gov. John Lynch’s office says it’s worthwhile to look at different options.

The legislative order was part of last year’s budget discussions, during which the state Department of Corrections saw its $106 million cut by about $4 million in 2012 and 2013, the Monitor said.

The challenge for corrections officials is immediately finding those savings because its plan for lowering costs -— reducing recidivism and responding differently to parole infractions — are long-term remedies.

The state’s prison population climbed 31 percent between 2000 and 2010 despite a stable crime rate, according to the Monitor. Half of that increase was attributed to inmates who leave prison only to return for a parole violation or a new offense.

Google searches of the four bidders found stories that privatization critics fear most: inmate escapes, sexual assaults by guards and citations of subpar prison conditions.

In 2009, a guard working at a prison run by GEO Group was charged with helping three inmates – two of whom were serving time for manslaughter – escape. This year, GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America were fined $1.6 million for violating their contracts with the state of New Mexico, according to news reports.

Corrections Corp. of America was holding inmates in prison past their release dates, according to the accounts.

Management & Training Corp. made headlines in 2010 when three inmates escaped an Arizona prison it was managing and killed a couple in their camping trailer. The victims’ families cited lax security in their lawsuit against the company. In 2011, federal officials charged one of Management & Training’s guards with sexually assaulting a detainee.

Even LaSalle Corrections, with its 12 prisons and jails, has made headlines, the Monitor reported.

Last month, an inmate at one of its Texas jails chiseled his way to freedom. Texas inspectors cited security “deficiencies.” In 2009, state inspectors cited the jail for not providing a mental-health patient with her medications.

But the New Hampshire Department of Corrections doesn’t have a perfect record either, according to the newspaper.