Valley Legislators Fight to Keep Corrections Jobs

State Representative Robert Hagan (D-Youngstown) has led area legislators in writing a letter urging the Federal Government to renew the contract of the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to manage the incarceration of federal prisoners at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center (NEOCC). The prison, in which CCA employs over four hundred workers from Mahoning and neighboring counties, may see most of its inmate population moved to Pennsylvania if it does not win a re-bid of its current contract.

“The NEOCC has supported Youngstown families with good paying jobs for many years,” Rep. Hagan said.  “The significant positive economic impact the facility has had for the Youngstown area cannot be overstated.”

NEOCC is a low-security prison in Youngstown housing roughly 2,000 male prisoners, three quarters of which are federal inmates incarcerated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The BOP recently released a Request for Proposal (RFP) that is a re-bid of CCA’s existing contract to house these inmates at NEOCC. CCA’s existing contract is set to expire in May of 2015.

Should CCA not win in re-bidding, the bulk of the inmate population at NEOCC will be shifted to a facility in another state, and NEOCC will be forced to significantly cut services and eliminate most of its 418 jobs. The Moshannon Valley Correctional Center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, is seen as the most likely contender to receive the new contract should the BOP not award it to NEOCC.

“These jobs are important to our community, and I do not want to see them shipped across state lines into Pennsylvania,” said Rep. Hagan.  “I’m determined to do everything I can to keep the NEOCC up and running. ”