COLUMBUS -- The new director of Ohio's prison system said Monday that the state had to make a choice between closing institutions and shipping inmates out of state or selling off five prisons to private companies.

The $55.5 billion, two-year budget proposed last week by Gov. John Kasich hopes to sell three prisons in northeast Ohio and two in Marion County for an estimated $200 million. But just $50 million of that is included in the budget for Department of Rehabilitation and Correction operations as one-time money to help wean the department off nearly $300 million in one-time federal stimulus funds not available this time.

"I don't want to think about what we'd have to do without [the $50 million]," Director Gary Mohr told the House Finance and Appropriations Committee. Mr. Kasich had been highly critical of predecessor Gov. Ted Strickland's current budget that relied heavily on one-time funds.

Ohio's prisons currently hold nearly a third more inmates than they were designed for.

As more than 50,000 inmates are kept in tighter settings, violent assaults against inmates and staff are on the increase.

"It became clear that the [alternative] plan was to close multiple prisons and put 12,000 inmates out of the state away from their families," Mr. Mohr said. "I honestly can't imagine the process of putting inmates on a bus to transfer out of state away from their families because it isn't something that 12,000 inmates would want to do."

Until recently, Mr. Mohr was a consultant for the private Corrections Corporation of America, which operates a private prison for the federal government at Youngstown but does not run any Ohio-owned prisons. Mr. Mohr insisted he will play no role in deciding who will win the bidding process.

The company's Youngstown prison paid a $1.5 million legal settlement after six inmates, including five killers, escaped in 1998.

Counting state and federal sources of funding, the corrections department would receive $1.6 billion in the fiscal year beginning July 1, a nearly 10 percent decrease from the current, stimulus-inflated level. Funding would remain virtually flat the following year.

The budget plan includes the closing of a prison camp adjacent to the Toledo Correctional Institution, one of 11 such camps in the state, and moving those 177 inmates inside the prison walls. The state also plans to close similar camps adjacent to its London, Ross, and Trumbull prisons. In all, it expects to save about $6.7 million over the biennium from this move.

The prisons heading for the auction block include two that are state owned but privately run -- Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Ashtabula County and North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility in Lorain County.

The state will also put for-sale signs on Grafton Correctional Institution in Lorain County, North Central Correctional Institution in Marion County, and the now vacant Marion Juvenile Correctional Institution. The latter facility would be adapted for adults.

Privately run prisons are required to save the state at least 5 percent compared to similar state-run facilities.

Current employees at the institution would have first dibs on the private jobs, but those facilities are expected to employ fewer guards because of reduced sick and vacation time and pay those workers less.

"The average annual salary for corrections officers in public facilities was $23,002 compared to $17,628 for corrections officers in private facilities, according to The Correction Yearbook," reads a report issued yesterday by Innovation Ohio. The liberal think tank was recently created to provide real-time reactions to information provided by the new Republican administration.

"Lower wages may contribute to higher turnover rates in private prisons, which was 52.2 percent compared to 16 percent in government-operated correctional facilities," the report reads.

The budget also banks on $27 million in savings over the two years via sentencing reforms aimed at redirecting nonviolent, short-stay inmates to community correctional and treatment programs instead of state prisons. The reforms would also allow some lower-risk inmates to "earn" more time off of their sentences by successfully completing treatment, education, and other programs.

 Contact Jim Provance at:  jprovance@theblade.com, or 614-221-0496.

First Published March 22, 2011, 4:30 a.m.