Ohio prepares to privatize some state prisons

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio turns over the keys to a 17-year-old state prison in Marion County on Saturday. It’s a move that’s exciting officials in the cash-strapped state and uprooting many prison employees.

North Central Correctional Institution is among five state facilities that will see management or operations changes Dec. 31 as part of a consolidation and privatization effort by Republican Gov. John Kasich. The changes will save Ohio an estimated $13 million a year.

North Central will be merged with a closed juvenile prison next door.

The previously private North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility in Lorain County will be merged with Grafton Correctional Institution and run as a single prison camp. And the privately run Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut has been sold to Corrections Corporation of America.