Youngstown renews house-arrest deal with CCA

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

City council agreed to renew a contract to place some nonviolent prisoners on house arrest.

Council approved the one-year deal Wednesday with the Community Corrections Association, a Youngstown company, retroactive to Nov. 1, 2009.

The legislation permits Youngstown to spend up to $120,000 annually on the CCA house-arrest contract.

The city has paid $137,240 to CCA during the first 18 months of a previous deal.

The new contract calls for the city to pay $40,000 annually to CCA plus $4 a day for each defendant in the house-arrest program — provisions identical to the old deal.

The contract also allows the city the option to renew the deal for an additional two years. The annual fee of $40,000 would remain the same, but the daily house-arrest prisoner fee would increase to $5.

Those on house arrest are nonviolent offenders, charged or convicted of charges such as driving without a license or with a suspended license. CCA electronically monitors their whereabouts.

Also Wednesday, council accepted a $774,700 federal energy-conservation grant.

About two-thirds of the money will go toward energy improvements to the city-owned 20 Federal Place office building, the former Phar-Mor corporate headquarters at 20 W. Federal St.

The city will install energy-efficient lighting throughout the nine-floor building as well as install energy-efficient windows on the fourth, fifth and sixth floors, and make improvements to the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems.

The city is still determining what to do with the rest of the federal grant. But it is considering providing assistance and expertise to help city businesses and building owners make their facilities more energy-efficient.