New private-prison policy bodes well for state, city

The future of the privately operated Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown is looking brighter by the day. Thanks to developments in Columbus and Washington, it appears increasingly likely that the vastly underused facility on Hubbard Road may soon bring in an increased inmate population, heightened employment and a much needed revenue boost to the city’s strained coffers.

Cooperation and communication between CoreCivic, the operator of the prison, with state and city officials will be key to ensuring those benefits materialize as quickly and as fully as possible.

In Columbus over the past week, both the House and Senate approved legislation by wide margins that will allow the state’s prison system to contract with private prisons, such as the one in Youngstown, to house inmates that typically would be sent to any of Ohio’s publically operated correctional facilities.

Specifically, the provisions enable the state to take advantage of inmate beds left vacant when the federal government ended contracts to house federal prisoners at NOCC last year.

Pending Gov. John R. Kasich’s signature expected later this month, the new statute will permit the vastly underused prison on the East Side to regain full capacity.

But for any who think the policy shift represents nothing more than a political perk to the Mahoning Valley, think again. Although the change will boost the fortunes of CoreCivic and the city, its value to the state looms much larger. Specifically, it will lessen overcrowding.

That problem is very real. According to the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee, the number of inmates in Ohio prisons increased 15.1 percent from 2005 to 2016, and prison crowding surged from 114.8 percent to 132.1 percent of capacity.

Transferring inmates from high-density prisons to the handful of privately-run correctional centers will likely lessen the threats of increased violence and enhance care and rehabilitation services for all who remain.

The plan also would negate the need for investing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into expanding prisons or building new ones.

According to Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, leaders of Nashville-based CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America, are “enthusiastic” about the legislation in relationship to its potential for the 20-year-old Hubbard Road prison.

Revenue boost

If all goes well, the positive dividends would ripple. It could mean hiring staff to compensate for the 185 workers laid off there last year, when NOCC lost its Bureau of Prisons federal contract and witnessed the exodus of 1,400 of its 2,000 inmates. That would also translate into an additional quarter-million dollars into the city treasury annually through income-tax collections.

To reap those and potentially more benefits, city leaders, state officials and CoreCivic administrators should begin planning transfers as expeditiously as possible. In so doing, however, they should ensure that safety for inmates and for residents living in the shadow of the prison receive appropriate attention and are not compromised, as some critics of private prisons have argued.

In addition, CoreCivic must work to ensure prisoners receive the same caliber of rehabilitation and vocational- training services that the state’s network of prisons provides. Incarceration in private prisons must never become synonymous with second-class rehabilitation.

On another optimistic front, just last week, a Department of Homeland Security advisory committee decided that Immigration and Customs Enforcement should continue contracting with private prison companies particularly because of ongoing increases in the number of detainees. According to Wall Street Journal reports, ICE is expecting upward of 5,000 undocumented immigrants to be apprehended by border agents in coming weeks and months, and it is negotiating with Core Civic for space at NOCC.

In addition, President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for mass detainment and deportation of illegal immigrants from Day 1 of his administration, if carried out, will obviously require an immediate increase in detention space. Such detainment can last for several years for some inmates.