By Alan Johnson

The Columbus Dispatch

(MCT) — A sixth state prison would be sold or leased to a private operator under a proposal being considered by an Ohio House committee.

An amendment to the two-year state budget under consideration by the Ohio House Finance Committee would permit the sale or lease of the Ohio River Valley Juvenile Correctional Facility in Franklin Furnace to an unspecified buyer. The amendment indicates it could be run as a facility for juvenile or adult offenders.

The facility, which currently houses 95 youth offenders and has 328 full-time employees, is scheduled to close in September. The Ohio Department of Youth Services has been shrinking for several years as youth offenders are funneled to community-based programs.

Scioto County leaders and the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, the union representing employees, have rallied to urge state officials to keep the facility open or sell it to another operator.

Rob Nichols, spokesman for Gov. John Kasich, said the administration has discussed the prison’s future with lawmakers from the area but has not decided whether it will support the House budget proposal.

“We want to see how it fits in with the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s plan,” Nichols said.

The prison agency has solicited bids for the sale of five prisons: the Marion Juvenile Correctional Facility in Marion, two state-owned adult prisons and two adult prisons run by private operators.

Republicans, who control the Ohio House, plan to vote the budget blueprint out of committee next week. It would have to be approved by the full House and Senate and signed by Gov. John Kasich to become law.