Joe Gullen writes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, 21 March 2011, that Private corrections company with ties to government officials will not get special treatment while Ohio sells five prisons, director says

A private corrections company with ties to both the governor’s office and the corrections department will get no special treatment as Ohio moves to privatize a chunk of its prison system, the corrections department director said Monday.

Gary Mohr, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, has pledged to remove himself from Gov. John Kasich’s recent proposal to sell five Ohio prisons to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Mohr is a former consultant and managing director for Corrections Corporation of America, a Nashville-based company that is eligible to bid on the state prison contracts once they are made available next month.

The company, which bills itself the leading private-sector provider of corrections services to governments, also hired Kasich’s former congressional chief of staff, Donald Thibaut, as a lobbyist in January.

Oh, my, how would any of that produce an appearance of conflict of interest?

As for hiring Kasich’s former congressional chief of staff as a lobbyist, Owen said CCA has long had a lobbyist in Ohio to educate elected officials on the services the company provides. CCA owns and operates a Youngstown facility that houses federal prisoners.

“There’s nothing hidden and no agenda,” Owen said.

Well, in that case, CCA should have no objection to finding out, for example, who they had lobbying the Georgia legislature lately.

-jsq