Liberty for Sale: Should Ohio inmates be commodities in a for-profit venture?

German Lopez

In 1997, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) opened a private prison in Youngstown, Ohio. The Northeast Ohio Correctional Center was to hold out-of-state prisoners with the promise of profits and tax revenue for Youngstown, a largely industrial city southeast of Cleveland that had struggled economically since its steel industry went downhill in the 1970s and ’80s. CCA quickly staffed the prison with inexperienced guards and then received 1,700 inmates