California To Send Inmates To Private Prison In Michigan
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- A private prison in western Michigan that closed when the state stopped housing youthful offenders there five years ago will soon be taking up to 2,600 California prisoners.
California prison officials have signed a $60-million-a-year contract with GEO Group Inc. to house the inmates from 2011 to 2014 at the former Michigan Youth Correctional Facility in Baldwin, 65 miles north of Grand Rapids.
The state ended its use of the prison, run by GEO for six years, after state officials decided they could save $18 million by sending the young inmates housed there to other prisons. It was closed in 2005.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm welcomed the news Friday, saying on her Facebook page that it means "450-plus new jobs will be coming to Lake County along with $60 million in new investment."
Granholm had offered California the chance to house inmates at state-owned prisons in Muskegon or Standish last year, but the offer was declined as too expensive.
Baldwin's 1,000 residents have been hoping GEO could find another use for the prison. The company plans to spend $60 million renovating and expanding what it now calls the North Lake Correctional Facility, converting the prison's dormitory housing units to cells and increasing capacity from 1,748 to 2,580 beds.
It expects to complete the conversion of the existing housing units by the spring of 2011 and will begin housing the first California prisoners next May. The expanded section should be completed before the end of 2011.
The initial three-year contract, which runs through June 2014, can be extended for successive two-year terms, GEO said in a statement.
California, which has the nation's largest state prison system, has sent nearly 10,000 inmates to private out-of-state prisons since 2006. The U.S. Supreme Court is to hear arguments this month over whether the federal courts can require California to cut its prison population further.
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