The company seemed reluctant, he said, to send seriously ill inmates to hospitals, which could cost it thousands of dollars a day.

It would, of course, be nice to send inmates to college.

The prison population grew rapidly during his term, which caused the state to send inmates to prisons in Virginia to deal with overcrowding.

A 2001 study concluded that a pattern of sending less expensive inmates to privately run facilities artificially inflated cost savings.

The hospital hired staff to provide care in the jails and to send inmates who needed emergency or specialty care to city hospitals.

In turn, the companies set strict rules on when doctors can call specialists, use expensive tests or send inmates to the hospital.

Of the $9 million spent over all to send inmates elsewhere, about $1.2 million has been spent this year.

Lacking space, he said, the jails may have to send inmates who assault officers right back to their bunks.

It's just that we're being sent more inmates and we have to put them to work.

Wyler also use contract labor (sending inmates to work outside the prison for another employer) and paid them little or nothing.