Indiana has outsourced 654 state prison inmates to Kentucky, even as 2,000 prison beds in the Hoosier state sit empty, reports the Indianapolis Star. Sending inmates to facilities outside Indiana has been a state practice for almost a decade as legislators search for cost-effective ways to deal with Indiana’s growing prison population.
But with two prisons — the Miami Correctional Facility and New Castle Correctional Facility — capable of holding more inmates, spending millions of dollars on an out-of-state private company has become an issue in the governor’s race. “It’s clear we could have hired Hoosiers, several hundred of them, with this money instead of focusing on Kentucky,” said Republican gubernatorial candidate Mitch Daniels. “It says that we don’t care if we spend tax dollars to employ non-Hoosiers, or we’re terrible managers, or both.”
Link: http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/190275-7716-009.html