Ohio House approves bill to place state prisoners in private prisons

December 7, 2016 at 12:04a.m.

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.

The prison, run by CoreCivic of Nashville, currently houses about 580 inmates through a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service that expires at the end of 2018.

“We’re happy to hear this got through the next hurdle and expect it will be signed by the governor later this month,” said Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally. “We’re hopeful this will serve as a kick-starter for the state and CoreCivic to find ways to use the Hubbard Road facility.”

CoreCivic officials are declining to discuss the legislation, but McNally said company representatives on a conference call with him and state Sen. John Eklund of Chardon, R-18th, who helped get the bill approved in the Senate, were “enthusiastic” about the proposal.

“They’re looking into it, but they want to wait to comment until it gets through the entire process,” McNally said.

When CoreCivic lost the federal contract, it laid off 185 workers.

If a deal is struck between the company and the state, “it would be a benefit for the people who will go back to working there or start working there, and the income tax would be helpful to the city.”

The city would gain about $225,000 to $250,000 annually in lost income tax at NOCC if the private prison goes back to being fully staffed, McNally said.

Rep. Kyle Koehler, R-Springfield, primary sponsor of the legislation, voiced his support from the floor of the Ohio House on Tuesday for the Senate amendments.

“The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction needs an effective way to manage the dense population of Level 3, high-security inmates,” he said. “Expanding bed capacity will result in decreased density, which results in increased safety for our staff and inmates.”

But Rep. Greta Johnson, D-Akron, was among the lawmakers who opposed the final bill, saying the House should have more debate on the private-prisons transfer issue.

“The privatization of public functions requires more than an amendment, and it certainly requires and we should demand discussion in this chamber about the privatization of public functions,” she said, adding, “When we turn the incarceration of our residents into a for-profit business, it is more than just a sad reflection of our humanity.”