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| Prison Shuffle Puts Workers at Risk |
| By The Arizona Republic |
| Published: 02/13/2006 |
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Hundreds of federal inmates are being shuffled out of the Eloy Detention Center in Pinal County, Az., a move that could leave about 425 prison workers out of a job, at least temporarily, in a city and county where the corrections industry is a major economic player. The Federal Bureau of Prisons is moving nearly 500 of its inmates from Corrections Corp. of America's 1,500-bed Eloy Detention Center to save money, said Mike Truman, a spokesman for the bureau. Now Corrections Corporation officials and Eloy Mayor Byron Jackson, a former Corrections Corp. correctional officer, are trying to convince another federal agency to keep its detainees in Eloy so that some of the jobs can be saved. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, has an agreement through the Bureau of Prisons to house undocumented immigrants in Eloy as they await deportation. There were 843 ICE detainees there as of last week. But when the prison bureau's contract with Corrections Corp. ends Feb. 28, ICE will also withdraw its detainees from Eloy unless immigration officials work out a new agreement with the prisons company. Eventually Corrections Corp. will likely replace the lost inmates, spokesman Steve Owen said. But there would be a temporary loss of federal money paying the salaries of Eloy's largest employer, which draws workers from throughout Pinal County. For Jackson, more prison cells mean more jobs flowing into Eloy, whose population is about 11,000. He brushes aside any fear of becoming known as a prison town, a reputation long held by Florence, Eloy's neighbor to the north. Meanwhile, Pinal County officials are also hoping to cash in by housing ICE detainees, a plan initiated by former County Manager Stanley Griffis. The county's budget director, James Throop, is trying to negotiate an agreement with ICE to house up to 625 detainees in Florence in the Sheriff's Office detention center, which is undergoing a 1,034-bed expansion. The Sheriff's Office plans to hire about 270 people, including 211detention officers, to staff its expanded jail. |
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