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| Ore. Prisons seek rental space for inmates |
| By Oregon Statesman Journal |
| Published: 08/15/2005 |
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Grappling with a prison-bed shortage, state corrections officials are looking to transfer about 500 inmates to rented cells in the next two years. The $10.4 million strategy comes as state prisons are bulging with almost 13,000 inmates, causing managers to rely on makeshift dormitories and double-bunking inmates in cells designed for one person. New prisons are in the works. In the meantime, finding enough rental beds to ease overcrowding could be a tough task. Private facilities are not an option. After a sex scandal and inmate escapes that occurred when Oregon shipped hundreds of inmates to distant private prisons in the 1990s, state lawmakers banned the practice. "We're prohibited by statute now from renting from privates," said Brian Bemus, the prison population manager for the Oregon Department of Corrections. That rules out contracting with 64 facilities run by the Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest private jailer. Another option, transferring Oregon inmates to government-operated prisons in other states, won't work either because most state and federal penal systems are jammed. Unable to ship overflow inmates to other states, corrections officials plan to hunt for hundreds of vacant beds in Oregon county jails. Already, 80 state inmates are doing time in rented beds in county jails in Douglas, Grant and Linn counties. A corrections department timetable envisions ratcheting up the number next July, gradually rising to 500 or more by June 30, 2007, the end of the two-year budget period. State officials have ruled out renting cells at a vacant, state-of-the-art jail in Portland. The $59 million Wapato jail was finished last summer but lacks the funding to open. Bemus cited prohibitive costs to rent space at the Multnomah County jail. It would cost the state about $100 per day to house inmates there. Although many county jails are also packed, Bemus said there are some exceptions. "Some (jails) have a housing unit here or there," he said. "Realistically, it will mean a number of small contracts to get to that (500) number." |
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