Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The companies will work to reduce the repeat-offender rate.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON — The private company that has run the Columbiana County Jail has been purchased by a similar company.
Peter Argeropulos, the chief operating officer for CiviGenics Inc., of Milford, Mass., the company that runs county jail, confirmed the purchase Tuesday.
The company was bought by Community Education Centers Inc. of Roseland, N.J., which acquired CiviGenics last week. CiviGenics will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of CEC.
The terms were not released, according to Argeropulos, who will remain in his post.
Commissioner James Hoppel said the commissioners were told the transition is supposed to be “seamless. You won’t know that the switch was made.”
The change has already been made at the jail, Argeropulos said. The commissioners own the county jail but lease it to CiviGenics.
A new focus
CEC says it is the leading provider nationally of offender re-entry services. CiviGenics is the largest provider of in-prison treatment programs.
The move will create the largest offender re-entry services company in the country, according to the CEC.
The focus on reducing the number of repeat offenders is needed, the CEC says.
According to federal statistics, the number of people incarcerated in the nation is growing. The number of people incarcerated now is 7.1 million, and that number is expected to rise to 8.5 million by 2012.
The combined company now will have a staff of more than 3,500 people and annual revenues in excess of $200 million. It will operate 97 facilities in 22 states that include residential and non-residential re-entry programs, jail management and in-prison treatment.
It will have about 20,000 people under its care every day.
Slight changes
Argeropulos said the sale could bring new programs at the Columbiana County jail to help reduce the repeat offender rate.
The staff at the county jail — who are CiviGenics employees — will have the same pay and benefits, if not a slight increase, Argeropulos said.
Argeropulos, who is the new executive vice president for operations, George Vose, formerly a director of the Rhode Island Department of Corrections and commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, and Dr. Robert Mackey, CEC’s chief operating officer, will form a three-man chief operating team. They will report to John J. Clancy, CEC’s president and chief executive officer.
Columbiana County Sheriff David Smith could not be reached about the change.
wilkinson@vindy.com