By Jack Greiner
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Ohio’s proposed budget for the coming year includes a plan to sell an additional six prisons to private operators. If that saves money or raises revenue, that’s great. But maybe in connection with that move, the Ohio Legislature could correct an absolutely horrendous Ohio Supreme Court decision from a few years back that allows privately run prisons to be free from public accountability. The case was State ex rel. Oriana House Inc. v. Montgomery. The issue was whether the records of a prison run by a private company should be subject to the Ohio Public Records Act. The prison received 88% of its funding from public sources and it obviously performed a public function. Previous decisions from the Ohio Supreme Court had ruled that a public agency couldn’t shield records from public view by outsourcing a public function to a private entity.
