From ChronicleOnline.com
ELYRIA, Ohio -- Frustration levels ran high Tuesday night when employees of Grafton Correctional Institution and other state prisons grilled state prisons director Gary C. Mohr during a two-hour session about why Ohio needs to sell five prisons, including Grafton Correctional, at the Spitzer Conference Center at Lorain County Community College.
Mohr said the alternative to close a budget shortfall was to close prisons and ship prisoners out of state, and he said that it would result in fewer jobs for corrections officers and other staff.
Many of the questions focused on issues such as how employees with seniority could seek to protect their jobs by “bumping” other prison employees.
But the crowd of about 300 people grew most animated when people criticized the decision to sell, saying the private corporations would take the easy prisoners and leave the state prison system with inmates with medical problems, mental health issues or security problems.
Read more at ChronicleOnline.com.