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| D.C. Scatters Inmates From Troubled Ohio Prison |
| By Washington Post |
| Published: 05/18/2001 |
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The remaining 350 D.C. inmates at a private prison in Youngstown, Ohio, will be moved to federal prisons across the country in coming months as the troubled penitentiary prepares to close in August, officials said recently. The prison, run by Corrections Corp. of America, has been beset with problems since it opened in 1997, accepting D.C. inmates from the Lorton Correctional Complex in Fairfax County. Two inmates were stabbed to death; 40 assaults were reported; six prisoners escaped in a 1998 breakout; and inmates won $1.65 million in a class-action lawsuit that accused guards of excessive force. But the impending closure of the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center concerns some inmates' relatives, who say they don't know where the prisoners will be transferred or whether their new prisons will be within driving distance for visits. And residents of Youngstown fret that the shutdown will mean the loss of more than 500 jobs. Steve Owen, a prison company spokesman, said the correctional center is being closed until the firm secures a new contract to house inmates. Owen said the District did not renew its contract because of a law that requires the federal Bureau of Prisons to oversee all D.C. felons by the end of the year. But the Bureau of Prisons didn't notify the company until late April that it intended to relocate the Youngstown prisoners, Owen said. Soon after, prison employees were given notices that they'd be out of jobs, he said. Ohio Gov. Bob Taft (R), in a letter last month to U.S. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, asked the U.S. Department of Justice and the D.C. prison system to consider buying the prison, which has an annual payroll of $11 million. |
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