COLUMBUS — Records show Ohio’s prisons agency made about $4.5 million from selling cattle and equipment after shutting down its prison-farm system.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that amount doesn’t include 12,000 acres of state-owned farmland that hasn’t been sold or leased yet.
The newspaper says the prisons system isn’t looking at whether taxpayers got a good deal out of the sales.
The union representing state prison employees is criticizing the sale, saying the state didn’t get its money’s worth.
The prisons agency decided in April to leave the farm industry.
Prisons Director Gary Mohr says preparing inmates for farm jobs is outdated and that farmlands are often used to smuggle contraband into prisons.
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