NEWS

Ohio puts Marion prison up for sale

Jona Ison
Gannett Ohio

Ohio is on the verge of selling its second prison, placing privately operated North Central Correctional Institution in Marion back on the market.

The prison and accompanying camp, which housed 2,682 inmates as of Monday, was among the five prisons Gov. John Kasich hoped to sell in 2011 to help alleviate a projected $8 billion budget gap.

While the state did move forward with a nearly $73 million sale of Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Ashtabula County — the first time a state sold a prison to a private company — North Central remained state owned, but operation was privatized with Utah-based Management and Training Corp.

The decision to sell centers around money: the state still owes about $10.4 million for the construction and activation of North Central and its camp in 1994, and officials estimate it needs to spend more than $33 million to keep it within standards, prison spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said.

"We saw this as an opportunity (to) sell the property and use the funds to invest in community alternatives to prison," Smith said.

Those alternatives include halfway houses, re-entry centers and community residential programs, including secured drug treatment facilities.

Selling the prison and camp, which is the former juvenile facility, also could boost local government coffers. In 2011, the state estimated selling the prison would generate $800,000 annually in local property taxes, Smith said.

The Ohio legislature approved House Bill 238 to allow for the sale of North Central as well as Turtle Creek Center in Lebanon, the only state-owned halfway house, and several other pieces of state-owned real estate. The sale of the Turtle Creek Center will not influence the number of halfway beds available because they will be maintained with another facility, Smith said.

The Department of Administrative Services will handle the sale, which will be done by sealed proposal, sealed bid auction, or public auction. As of right now, Smith said there are no plans to sell any other prisons.

Rep. Kathleen Clyde (D-Kent) called for an end to privatizing Ohio's prisons and criticized the decision for being tacked onto a bill "last minute."

"These last-minute additions to House Bill 238 have not been vetted. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections did not provide testimony to the legislative committees hearing this proposal. A lot of questions and concerns remain, and the governor should veto this rush authorization of sale," Clyde said in a prepared statement.

Kasich intends to sign the bill, according to his press secretary, Rob Nichols.

A sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Barbara Sears, R-Monclova Township, contends officials had testimony on the issue as well as the other pieces of property placed up for sale. She said they added the prison sale to legislation selling other property to address it before breaking for the summer and after realizing concerns centered around privatization, which they viewed as "unrelated."

"We're only looking at two that are already contracted out. The state just simply doesn't need to own that property anymore. ... It's a better use of money," Sears said.

Although the intent is to sell the prison, there is a caveat that North Central must remain a prison. Management and Training Corp.'s contract with the state runs through June 30, 2017, and it will continue to operate it, Smith said. A spokeswoman with Management and Training Corp. said the state's decision is too new for the company to know whether it may want to buy the prison or how the legislation will impact it.

Ohioans should be concerned about the move because selling the prison to a private company locks the state in more than if they just contracted for operations, said Mike Brickner, ACLU of Ohio senior policy director.

"If something catastrophic happens ... the state could get out of that contract and resume operations as a state prison," he said.

Sears countered that there are safeguards in place that would let the state get the prison back after selling it if there was a problem. Brickner is leery of the provision, saying it's untested since Ohio is the only state to ever sell a prison to a private prison company. Such a move could lead to litigation and leave the state paying more to regain control than it sold it for.

A Corrections Corporation of America spokesman didn't say whether the company would make an offer for North Central, but Brickner noted CCA is the only private prison company that has expressed interest in buying prisons. After purchasing Lake Erie Correctional, which also had been under Management and Training Corp.'s direction before the sale, CCA put out a letter to other states expressing its interest in buying prisons.

jison@gannett.com

Twitter: @JonaIson