Prison management company fined heavily after U.S. probe could get Michigan deal

Look who could be getting a prison contract in Michigan:

LANSING — A private company that a federal investigation found allowed “a cesspool” of conditions to exist at a Mississippi youth prison and that paid a $1.1-million fine for understaffing New Mexico prisons could be in line to oversee Michigan inmates in the next year.

The Republican-controlled state Senate has passed legislation that would allow inmates to be moved to a private prison. Legislation awaiting passage in the House would go further, requiring the Department of Corrections to close a prison in Ionia and send more than 1,000 inmates to a private facility if the state can cut its costs by at least 10%.

The bill doesn’t specify that any particular company be given the prison contract, but it’s unlikely another private company besides GEO Group would bid to house the inmates. The Florida-based company owns the only private prison in Michigan, the now-empty North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin.

Read>> Prison management company fined heavily after U.S. probe could get Michigan deal