BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Problems at Ohio's only private prison, which have gained national attention, are set for debate in two arenas today: publicly in Youngstown and privately in Cincinnati.
While state lawmakers hold a public hearing near the prison in Youngstown, a Cincinnati mediator is scheduled to continue closed-door negotiations, Youngstown Law Director Robert E. Bush Jr. said. "The mediation takes it out of the limelight and prevents some people from posturing," he said.
Mr. Bush said the city's biggest dispute focuses on the prison's alleged acceptance of inmates from Washington, D.C., who were too dangerous for the guards or the prison to handle.
That issue also has grabbed attention from U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who urges swift transfer of "higher-security" inmates out of the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center (NOCC), possibly later this week.
The prison's troubled 15-month history includes at least a dozen stabbings, two homicides and the July 25 escape of six inmates at once. One escapee remains at large.
In a four-page letter to Ohio Gov. George Voinovich dated Aug. 7, Ms. Reno said she agrees that "immediate action is necessary" and that she and others are taking steps to fix problems at NOCC. Transferring dangerous inmates out of NOCC "should make the facility easier to manage, and it should address the most obvious concerns about the facility," Ms. Reno's letter said.
The prison was supposed to be reserved for medium-security inmates, generally low-level felons or higher-level felons with good prison conduct records.
The prison's operator, the Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), released a statement saying it "stands ready to fully cooperate and assist with all key elements of the attorney general's plan."
Ms. Reno also calls for an independent review of the prison's management and security procedures, and better monitoring of CCA's contract with the Washington, D.C., corrections department. CCA did not say how many prisoners were targeted for transfer or when the transfers would occur; attempts to reach CCA spokeswoman Susan Hart were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, CCA and some of its critics are expected to continue hashing out their differences in today's mediation session in Cincinnati.
Among the critics is Cincinnati attorney Alphonse Gerhardstein, who sued CCA on inmates' behalf, alleging CCA's practices imperiled prisoners' health and safety.
Youngstown joined that suit, filed in an Akron federal court, on the issue of prisoner classification only, said Mr. Bush, the Youngstown city lawyer.
The city thinks at least 300 of the prison's 1,500 prisoners were misclassified, Mr. Bush said, adding, "The biggest thing we want right now is legitimate classification of a medium-security inmate that we can live with and that we can have some control over." Some of the allegedly misclassified inmates have been transferred already, CCA says.
The city wants to appoint an independent classification expert, whose decisions it could "veto" if necessary, Mr. Bush said. In other action, a prison oversight committee, which focused on NOCC's problems in two hearings in Columbus last week, will hold a public hearing in Youngstown today.
The Correctional Institution Inspection Committee, which includes Sen. Louis W. Blessing, R-Cincinnati, and Rep. Mark Mallory, D-Cincinnati, expects to release recommendations in about a month.
