The Federal Bureau of Prisons awarded a contract April 2 to a private prison operator to build a facility in Philipsburg, Pa., to house 350 male youth offenders, 300 women and 350 minimum-security men from the District.

The $342.6 million, 10-year contract with Houston-based Cornell Corrections Inc. includes a three-year base period with seven one-year options.

Philipsburg, a small town near State College in central Pennsylvania, is about 100 miles north of the Maryland state line.

A second contract to house 1,200 low-security men is expected to be announced this summer. Corrections Corporation of America has submitted a bid to build such a facility at Oxon Cove at the southern tip of Ward 8.

The contracts follow a congressional mandate that the District hand over control of sentenced felons to federal authorities by 2001.

Copyright 1999, The Common Denominator