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By JAY REEVES Associated Press Writer BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) Alabama will remove its 250 inmates from a privately run prison where two convicts escaped last month and were only recaptured after a shootout with police in North Dakota.

But Alabama's Prison Commissioner Richard Allen said Monday that money, not security, is the reason the state will end its contract with LCS Corrections Services Inc. at the end of the current fiscal year.

Allen tells The Associated Press that his agency cannot afford to continue housing inmates at the Perry County Detention Center.

Lafayette, La.-based LCS Corrections said the company knows about the state's plan.

Two men who escaped from the 700-bed prison near Uniontown, Ala., on May 25 were recaptured on Saturday along with two women accused of helping them.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 06-08-09 1455CDT | save this article / add to your favorites list