By Alan Johnson
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS — Ohio’s prison system is in for some big changes -- and only a few relate to privatization.
Almost before the ink was dry on Ohio’s first-in-the-nation sale of a state prison to a private buyer, prisons director Gary C. Mohr was working on an aggressive reorganization and legislative agenda that, if accomplished, would transform the system.
“That doesn’t change anything,” Mohr said of the surprise decision to sell one, not five, facilities. “My goal was never to have only private prisons or public prisons. The plan was to stabilize the system.”
Officials announced the sale last week of the Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut, in Ashtabula County, for $72.7 million. The buyer is the Corrections Corp. of America of Nashville, Tenn., which will operate the prison for 8 percent less than the state, saving taxpayers $3 million annually.
The deal officials agreed upon, after poring over bids for nearly three months, will also result in the North Central Correctional Institution and vacant Marion Juvenile Correctional Facility being taken over by year’s end by Management and Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah, saving an estimated $3 million annually.
And the North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility in Lorain County will be taken over by the state after being managed for the past several years by Management and Training Corp. Operations will be merged with the nearby Grafton Correctional Institution, saving $7 million annually.
The bottom line: The state will have three private prisons instead of two.
Mohr told The Dispatch that he is focusing on shaping a safer, more cost-effective, less-crowded system that better prepares inmates leaving prison to adjust to the world outside.
These are the three parts of his reorganization plan and four parts of his legislative agenda:
A three-tier system
* Reintegration prisons. These will house lowest-security inmates serving shorter sentences before their release. Inmates will work eight hours a day “at productive jobs,” Mohr said. “I want to put inmates to work. We’re going to do a time sheet every day.” Potential jobs range from light manufacturing to truck-driver training.
* General-population prisons. These will be transitional facilities, where inmates will concentrate on education, training and community re-entry programs.
* Control prisons. These are for the truly bad guys -- gang members, those with a history of violence behind bars and inmates serving long or life sentences. The Mansfield Correctional Institution is the first to be transformed; 80 of the most serious offenders statewide already have been transferred there.
Legislative proposals
* Expand “earned credit” for all inmates, not just new ones, as allowed under the recently adopted criminal-sentencing overhaul.
* Increase “transitional control,” which allows inmates to be transferred to community residential facilities in the last six months of their sentence.
* Reduce “collateral sanctions,” such as the loss of a driver’s license, that prevent ex-offenders from effectively re-entering society.
* Allow sentence reductions for inmates employed in reintegration prisons.
Mohr said he is working with state lawmakers and judges on his ideas.
For one, agency officials are listening to an idea by Dayton-area state Rep. Jim Butler, R-Oakwood, who supports legislation to permit prisoners to manufacture consumer goods for sale, perhaps flat-screen televisions or cellphones.
While the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has taken a dim view of Butler’s idea, suggesting inmates might be exploited, Mohr said he thinks such plans will work. He said he would not have inmates do work that would steal jobs from private companies.
Officials with the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association haven’t weighed in on Mohr’s new plans after heavily criticizing the original proposal to sell five prisons. However, Christopher Mabe, the new union president and a veteran corrections officer, said last week that he was relieved that the state sold just one prison.
Mabe said the union has worked with past administrations on plans to make prisons work better and more cost-effectively and is willing to try again.
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