By Craig Harris | The Republic
The first group of 25 state inmates will move into the Red Rock Correctional Center Tuesday as Arizona expands its reliance on private prisons to ease overcrowding in the state penal system.
The state Department of Corrections by January plans to transfer up to 1,000 medium-custody inmates to southern Pinal County, where Corrections Corporation of America said it is spending $40 million at Red Rock to build a new dormitory, renovate cells and expand recreation areas to handle the new inmates. The facility, which once housed inmates from other states, began accepting Arizona inmates in January 2014. It already houses nearly 1,000 state inmates.
