The Idaho Department of Correction didn't approve of certain staff behavior at the Newton County Correctional Center, but in no way did it lead to 419 inmates' planned transfer, an official said Thursday.

With allegations of prisoner mistreatment swirling, coupled with inmate protests and a two-man prison break since the state placed the inmates in Newton, the Idaho Department of Correction agreed to transport 419 of their inmates out of the Southeast Texas prison and into another GEO Group-managed facility, said Pam Sonnen, Idaho Department of Correction administrator of operations.

The GEO Group, a private prison management company overseeing operations in Newton, approached Idaho officials about the transfer after the Texas Department of Criminal Justice contacted Newton County to ask about housing 400 more Texas inmates.

The state agency's prisons were at 97.4 percent occupancy as of July 11, according to a department spokeswoman, and by the end of 2007, an estimated 1,700 additional beds will be needed.

When the transfer of the Idaho inmates initially was announced Tuesday, Idaho Department of Correction Director Tom Beauclair told The Associated Press he'd become dissatisfied with the prison's ability to hire qualified staff.

Sonnen said the correctional center has holdover personnel from the prison's previous management group, and those employees don't always follow the GEO Group's practices. In 2005, the GEO Group bought out Correctional Services Corp., which previously managed the Newton prison.

"What I got out of our investigations was they needed to do more training with their staff to understand policies and procedures," Sonnen said.

Problems arose almost immediately after Idaho agreed March 14 to send its inmates to Newton, Sonnen said. On April 7, she said, an excessive-use-of-force incident led to a supervisor's

firing, another employee's demotion and suspension of an officer for a week without pay. On May 30, an inmate was doused with pepper spray, and two other Idaho inmates escaped in June. Idaho prisoners also engineered a sit-down strike demanding butter for their rolls and better television choices, privileges they'd grown accustomed to, Sonnen said.

"We felt pretty good that they were addressing all the issues that they were tackling," Sonnen said. "We knew that we needed to give them time to work out the problems. ... We appreciated GEO taking swift action."

Pablo Paez, a Florida-based Geo Group spokesman, said the management company takes the proper corrective action in problematic situations.

Part of the problem was a "culture clash" between Idaho prisoners' expectations and the reality of their living situation in Newton, Sonnen said.

The prisoners were transported far from their families to a hotter location, which doesn't provide all the societal re-entry programs Idaho does, Sonnen said. Newton is more like an "old county jail," while the Idaho inmates are used to larger facilities, she said.

"Our staff is very hands-on," Sonnen said. "Our inmates are a lot more used to that kind of supervision."

Newton County Public Facility Corporation President Truman Dougharty said the county told the GEO Group it would rather have more inmates from Texas than continue housing the Idaho offenders. With the additional 400 inmates, the Newton prison will have 736 Texas prisoners.

"Texas screens their (inmates) real good," said Dougharty, who also is the county judge. "They know what we're asking for. I don't know how to say this - they're just better inmates."

While the Idaho inmate contract didn't work out in Newton, Dougharty said it wasn't a mistake.

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