Prison sale constitution, court rules

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled 5-2 on Thursday that the state's sale of a prison in northeast Ohio to a private corporation did not violate the constitution.

The Kasich administration and General Assembly agreed in 2011 to sell the Lake Erie Correctional Facility in Ashtabula County. Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America purchased the prison and now has a contract to house 1,766 state prisoners.

Ohio sold the facility to CCA for $72-million and turned the keys over on Dec. 31, 2011 to the publicly traded company. Operation — but not ownership — of the North Central Correctional Complex in Marion was turned over to another private company, Management & Training Corp. of Utah.

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