rodney.richey@heraldbulletin.com

The influx of prisoners from Arizona into the New Castle Correctional Facility began as an idea to derive increased use of the institution, which had been at about half its capacity, according to the Indiana Department of Correction Web site.

Earlier this year, the state of Indiana agreed to house up to 1,260 of Arizona’s inmates at New Castle, at what Gov. Mitch Daniels called a “white elephant prison,” meaning it was not used to capacity.

Arizona, needing to alleviate overcrowding in its correctional system, sent the first 100 or so prisoners to New Castle in March. At the time of Tuesday’s violence, 630 inmates from Arizona were housed there, along with about 1,050 from Indiana, according to the Associated Press.

Plans were that several hundred jobs would be created in the city, whose economic condition closely mirrors Anderson’s.

Prisoners from California were initially to have bunked at the New Castle facility, but that plan fell through because of a lawsuit against California and that not enough California inmates volunteered for the exchange.

The deal with Arizona would have paid the New Castle facility $64 per day to house each inmate, with about a fourth of that going to state government.

Before the violence Tuesday at New Castle, officials had hoped that the transfer would be complete by Memorial Day. The prisoners were to have stayed until some time late next year.

According to reports at the time, the transferred inmates were to be medium-security prisoners. High-risk offenders, sex offenders or those with escape histories or recent history of prison disciplinary action were not eligible.

The Arizona inmates were also reportedly to be keep isolated from the Indiana inmates.

Information supplied by the Associated Press, the Indiana Department of Correction Web site and the GEO Group Web site.