Posted on 10/05/2006 6:58:34 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
The state plans to house up to 1,200 prisoners from California in unused portions of the New Castle Correctional Facility, a move that Gov. Mitch Daniels said Thursday would create up to 200 jobs.
The announcement came a day after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in that state's critically crowded prisons, a step that allows him to use his executive powers to ship inmates elsewhere.
Daniels said the arrangement will benefit both states. Under a contract between California and Florida-based GEO Group Inc., the company Indiana hired to operate the New Castle prison will be paid $63 per day to house each California inmate, but $15 of that will go to Indiana state government.
Daniels said that means the state would make about $6.2 million in each of the next two years. The medium-security prison in New Castle, 40 miles east of Indianapolis, has a capacity for 2,416. It now has 1,036 inmates.
Under terms of the contract, Indiana can reclaim space for Indiana inmates as needed. Daniels said he anticipated the need to start doing that in a year, and Department of Correction Commissioner David Donahue said he expects all 1,200 beds with California inmates will be needed for Indiana prisoners by the end of 2008.
Daniels said the state first contacted California about the possibility of such an arrangement about five months ago, and he called it "a very effective and maybe creative step to take."
"Indiana gets 200 jobs, a well-trained work force at New Castle as that facility is fully used to house Indiana prisoners and millions of dollars that didn't have to come from anybody's tax payments," Daniels said. "Gov. Schwarzenegger was very happy about it, and so were we.
"I think the longer California looked at it, the more they decided this was a very good answer to a crisis that they have."
California has the nation's largest state prison population with 172,000 inmates, and its prison system is about 70 percent over capacity. Without swift action, the prisons will run out of bed space as early as June, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Each California offender will be required to meet the same medium-security standards as those sent by Indiana to New Castle. That means no seriously violent offenders, sex offenders or those seriously mentally ill. Donahue said many medium-security offenders are in prison for drug use.
Indiana still has about 1,000 DOC inmates being housed in county jails, and the state pays the counties $35 per day per offender. But Daniels said that is less than the average of $55 per day to be housed in state-run prisons, provides some counties with a little revenue, and allows some offenders to be closer to home.
Donahue said California inmates will be transferred to New Castle in waves, with the first in November and all within 90 days.
New Castle?
kind of has a catchy ring to it.
Damn!
I didn't even know Indiana was at war with California.
Oh, yes it is. These people may decide to give up a life of crime.
Actually they are very lucky the minimum security facility isn't in South Bend-Mishawaka where they get 15 to 30 feet of snow, and that's just by Thanksgiving!
I bet one prisoner could put the stop to this by just complaining he/she or He-She would no longer be near his relatives.
You know his-hers rights man!
I'm partial to the idea of prison camps at some of those farms that are whining about the lack of pickers.
You win the "killing two birds with one stone" award for the day.
When I was a youngster we lived in a place that was surrounded by farmland owned by southern Michigan prison. That was back in the days before some genius decided that it was cheaper to force taxpayers to pick up more of the tab.
I disagree. Prisoners would have to be scanned for contagious diseases or infections. Some are HIV positive.
How about outsourcing our prisoners to Mexico?
It would be cheaper, and since much of our prison population ARE illegals....it would be very appropriate.
Our illegal work force isn't screened either.
Gary must be slowing down if they have space for Kalifornia's bad boys.
For those in fly over, hope they enjoy the illegals.
They are a huge population of the prisons due to murder, drugs, robbery, gangs, etc.
Funny thing is; Indiana, or more specifically, Indianapolis, has an early release problem of our own. THe Marion county jail is continually overcrowded, and has been sited by the courts for it numerous times.
So what do we do about it? We take in prisoners from out of state.
Boggles the mind.
Schwarzenegger's Executive Order allows the corrections department to bypass competitive bidding... signing no-bid, sole-source contracts.
Those GEO Group folks must love this. Who next? Civigenics?
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