Bill revisions allow state inmates to be housed in Youngstown's private prison

COLUMBUS

The Ohio House signed off on Senate amendments to legislation that will allow the state’s prison system to contract with private facilities, such as the one in Youngstown, to house inmates, sending the bill to Gov. John Kasich for his signature.

The House concurred Tuesday on a vote of 60-28, five days after the Ohio Senate voted 26-1 on the law changes.

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.

The latter provisions would enable 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.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons opted in March 2015 not to renew a contract, which expired two months later, with NOCC on Hubbard Road on Youngstown’s East Side, resulting in the exodus of about 1,400 of its 2,000 prisoners. Those prisoners were illegal immigrants charged with felonies.

Also, officials announced four months ago that they would no longer routinely house federal inmates in privately operated prisons because of a rapid decline in the U.S. inmate population nationwide.

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