BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine said Thursday he wants a congressional investigation of how six violent criminals from the District of Columbia ended up in Ohio's only privately run prison.
"I think we need to get to the bottom of whether or not this prison in Youngstown knew what it is getting when these inmates were sent," the Ohio Republican said in Cincinnati.
The issue arose after six inmates of the privately run Youngstown prison -- five of them convicted murderers -- escaped last month. One inmate remains at large.
The Northeast Ohio Correctional Center at Youngstown is operated by Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), a Nashville-based company. Ohio Gov. George Voinovich wants better oversight and a state legislative committee is investigating.
Mr. DeWine, who was in Cincinnati for the unveiling of a new U.S. postage stamp encouraging organ donation, said he expects that the Senate Judiciary Committee -- of which he is a member -- will hold hearings into how the D.C. inmates ended up in Youngstown.
The CCA facility in Youngstown is supposed to be a "medium security" prison for low-level felons or more serious felons who have good conduct records in prison. Instead, the six sent to Youngstown were among the most violent in the D.C. prison system.
"If you are going to run a prison, you have to know who you have in it," said Mr. DeWine, who, when he was Ohio's lieutenant governor, oversaw Ohio's state prison system.
"I want to know if the prison officials in the District of Columbia gave Youngstown sufficient information about who these people are," Mr. DeWine said. "And if they did, I want to know if the people running the Youngstown prison chose to ignore it."
Mr. Sen. DeWine said the situation is a matter for Congress to consider, because Congress oversees the government of the District of Columbia. "This is going to be a major issue, not just in Ohio, but nationwide," Mr. DeWine said. "With the prison situation in this country, we are going to see more prisoners transported across state lines in the future, not fewer."
Mr. DeWine said the state-run prison system "has come a long way" in the years since the 1993 Lucasville prison riot in terms of classifying prisoners and identifying potential troublemakers. Mr. DeWine said he is not opposed to privately run prisons, but he said private companies that run prisons should be supervised closely by the state.
"That was not the case in Youngstown," Mr. DeWine said. "If a private company is going to run a prison, the state should insist that it run it in compliance with state standards."
