Ohio Senate approves bill to transfer state inmates to private prisons

COLUMBUS

Legislation that would allow state prisoners to be transferred to private prisons, like the one in Youngstown, has cleared the Ohio Senate.

The Thursday vote on Senate Bill 185 was 26-1, and the legislation heads back to the Ohio House for consideration of Senate amendments.

The original legislation focused on arson offenses, expanding the crime to include unoccupied structures. Language added by senators during committee deliberations would enable the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to contract with private facilities to house state prisoners.

State Sen. John Eklund of Chardon, R-18th, who serves as chairman of the committee that considered the legislation, said the language would allow the state to take advantage of inmate beds left vacant when the federal government ended contracts to house federal prisoners at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown.

“It would be very, very helpful to reduce or work toward reducing the density of the population in our prisons, if DRC could move some prisoners” into “those vacant beds,” Eklund said.

Read more about the situation in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.