This plan isn't for all inmates. Just those who show the willingness to someday, reenter society a better person.

'The Lebanon Correctional Institute is one of 10 Ohio working prison farms. It is home to nearly 800 head of cattle that roam some 1,700 acres of rolling hills along Ohio 63. Its caretakers are minimum-security inmates.

The prison also manufactures license plates and validation stickers for every motorist in Ohio. That work is part of the Ohio Penal Industries, a self-sufficient agency within the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction that manufactures goods such as furniture. Any government or nonprofit agency can buy the goods.

In another unique program, inmates crochet baby blankets and other items for a Dayton veterans hospital.

In February, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction announced the state’s offender recidivism rate was at a record low, with 28.7 percent of inmates returning to prison after release. The national average is about 43 percent.

LCI Warden Ernie Moore said more than 90 percent of inmates eventually return to Ohio communities. He said it’s the department’s “responsibility to make sure that when we release somebody from prison that we‘re releasing a better person than what came in.” He said one of the ways that’s accomplished is through programming such as vocations and community service.

Moore said his goal is to allow every inmate to have a job, although some don’t work because of medical conditions. Inmates work on average 33 hours a week, earning about 13 cents a hour. He said inmates who work for Ohio Penal Industries can earn as much as $70 a month or 54 cents a hour. Of LCI’s 2,600 inmates, about 2,210, or 85 percent, have jobs.

At the farm, crops are grown to feed the cows. Last year, those cows produced 258,000 gallons of milk.

Milk processed at the Pickaway Correctional Institution, near Columbus, feeds all of Ohio’s prison inmates. Beef cows are sent to feed lots at other Ohio prisons to be fattened, then sent to Pickaway for processing. The beef also feed inmates throughout the state.

I think we should do alot more reforming instead of just punishing,, particularly non violent criminals,,,,,

I agree, there should be a chance for many to be reformed but some in our society refuse to believe a person can be reformed and only want to keep them locked away from the rest of the world. There are a few people that most likely cannot be reformed but I see that as no reason to give the vast majority a change to prove they can be a better person.

that's why some Prisoners get paroled,actually quite a few!

the prison system is mostly privatized now, most all inmates are a dollar figure to the prison... so why would they care about inmates being reformed?

well, they cant house everyone thats breaking laws,,,

point made,,,much to suspect in the private prison industry,,,

I'm pretty radical on what I think prisons should do with prisoners.

They should build a city from the ground up. They'll learn a variety of jobs that way and help themselves.

Can they add a race track to that city?

Sure. The state the city is built in can offer incentives for industries to locate there...so it can be a full fledged city.

No fence.
To keep them there, put an exploding band around their necks. They step outside the marked boundary, it blows their heads off.
Anyone unauthorized caught entering, give 'em 10 years.

Collars around their necks like the Wild Wild West, only exploding? Save money on guarding them!

You never saw that movie?
I think it starred the guy that starred in the first Planet of the Apes.
Charlton Heston.

Still, they can't complain about cruel and unusual...they know what they're wearing!

the libs would have a field day with that one... we just can't go around hurting the criminals...

But we're not hurting them...they are committing suicide!

\
the libs wouldn't be for that, because they like telling people how to live, not how to die... if they're dead, they can't be bossed around by the libs anymore...

Prison and jails do get over crowed. I have seen in the local jail they put up to five people in a room with only two beds. They normally do that on the nights they make many arrest at the traffic check point. Still it is not uncommon to find some rooms with three people, one sleeping on the concert floor and two on metal beds.

Still even the public ones do this because of the money they get for each inmate they have. However I have read that some of the private prisons have had better results keeping violence down within their walls. Still, many public prisons have no real desire to reform because they want that government check for taking care of the inmates. The more inmates they have, the more money they get.

The plus side to the private prison is they may have more freedom to do reform work then the public. Anything that is government run does take forever to get any real effective change done and often coast a ton of dollars to just keep the status quo.

Take the schools in California; the public schools want to close down the privately own charter school so the students would be force to enroll the public so the public schools can get those dollars. Right now the private charter schools they want to close down has some of the highest grades and many of the children where the at risk ones. Plus these private charter schools did this for a fraction of what it cost the public.

I would like to see a study on the privately own prison and how well they do compared to the public. Although from a news report last week, I think most do better then New Orleans’ prisons. They have video from inside showing inmates doing drugs and even having handguns.

I hear one of the prison or jails in Arizona does not have a fence, although it is located in the middle of the desert. Now some of the lower levels ones don’t have a fence either.

We got to keep in mind that there are different types of prisons with different security levels depending on the crime.

Pssst.
Just tell the libs they are late-term self-aborting. No problem.