The county jail is preparing for its full reopening later this summer.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County Sheriff's Department is on the way toward housing its expected total of 150 revenue-generating federal prisoners in county jail by early to mid-August, said Maj. James Lewandowski, jail warden.
After a hiatus of more than two years, the county jail began housing federal prisoners once again May 23. Sheriff's deputies picked up 48 federal prisoners from the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Hubbard Road on May 23-24, and one has since been returned to Columbus, leaving a total of 47 federal inmates as of Friday. The jail housed a total of 428 inmates as of Friday, Lewandowski added.
All the federal prisoners came from the U.S. Marshal's Service for the Southern District of Ohio, originating in Columbus and Dayton, and many are being held on drug charges. All the federal inmates are men, and Lewandowski said the sheriff's department does not expect to house female federal inmates in the county jail.
Eight of the federal inmates speak Spanish as their first language and little or no English. The sheriff's department has Spanish-speaking staff and is now completing a translation of its inmate handbook into Spanish, Lewandowski added.
Facts and figures
The federal government is paying the county $68.84 per federal inmate per day, but, due to increases in the sheriff's department's payroll and hospitalization costs, the sheriff's department will seek to amend its contract to a higher figure later this year, Lewandowski said.
The federal government also pays for all medications and out-of-jail medical expenses for its inmates.
The return of revenue-generating federal prisoners, who were last housed in the county jail in March 2005, is one of the key elements in funding the full opening of the county's main jail and reopening of the county's misdemeanor jail, Lewandowski said.
Sheriff Randall Wellington has projected that the main jail will fully reopen by July 1, and that the 96-bed misdemeanor jail will reopen for regular overnight use by Aug. 1.
Ninety percent of the space in the main jail is now open, with only one 36-bed prisoner housing unit still closed. When it fully reopens, the main jail's maximum capacity will be 548 inmates, Lewandowski said. The sheriff's department is still hiring and training new deputies to accomplish the full reopenings.
The settlement
The return of federal prisoners to the jail follows the settlement in mid-May of a 3 1/2-year-old federal class-action lawsuit by county jail inmates. In March 2005, the inmates won that lawsuit against the county, which alleged that overcrowded jail conditions violated their constitutional rights.
Included in the settlement are requirements concerning jail staffing, improvement of jail conditions, the reopening of all jail facilities by Aug. 1, an allotment of jail beds for Youngstown city prisoners and an emergency prisoner release policy to prevent future overcrowding. The agreement also allowed for the housing of federal prisoners in the county jail.
In the mid-May settlement hearing in U.S. District Court in Akron, Judge Alice M. Batchelder of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, chairwoman of the three-judge jail oversight panel, said the settlement would have been unlikely without renewal of the county's half-percent sales tax by the voters May 8.
Some 69 percent of this year's $49.6 million in general fund spending goes to jail operations and other parts of the county's criminal justice system.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
The county jail is preparing for its full reopening later this summer.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County Sheriff's Department is on the way toward housing its expected total of 150 revenue-generating federal prisoners in county jail by early to mid-August, said Maj. James Lewandowski, jail warden.
After a hiatus of more than two years, the county jail began housing federal prisoners once again May 23. Sheriff's deputies picked up 48 federal prisoners from the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Hubbard Road on May 23-24, and one has since been returned to Columbus, leaving a total of 47 federal inmates as of Friday. The jail housed a total of 428 inmates as of Friday, Lewandowski added.
All the federal prisoners came from the U.S. Marshal's Service for the Southern District of Ohio, originating in Columbus and Dayton, and many are being held on drug charges. All the federal inmates are men, and Lewandowski said the sheriff's department does not expect to house female federal inmates in the county jail.
Eight of the federal inmates speak Spanish as their first language and little or no English. The sheriff's department has Spanish-speaking staff and is now completing a translation of its inmate handbook into Spanish, Lewandowski added.
Facts and figures
The federal government is paying the county $68.84 per federal inmate per day, but, due to increases in the sheriff's department's payroll and hospitalization costs, the sheriff's department will seek to amend its contract to a higher figure later this year, Lewandowski said.
The federal government also pays for all medications and out-of-jail medical expenses for its inmates.
The return of revenue-generating federal prisoners, who were last housed in the county jail in March 2005, is one of the key elements in funding the full opening of the county's main jail and reopening of the county's misdemeanor jail, Lewandowski said.
Sheriff Randall Wellington has projected that the main jail will fully reopen by July 1, and that the 96-bed misdemeanor jail will reopen for regular overnight use by Aug. 1.
Ninety percent of the space in the main jail is now open, with only one 36-bed prisoner housing unit still closed. When it fully reopens, the main jail's maximum capacity will be 548 inmates, Lewandowski said. The sheriff's department is still hiring and training new deputies to accomplish the full reopenings.
The settlement
The return of federal prisoners to the jail follows the settlement in mid-May of a 3 1/2-year-old federal class-action lawsuit by county jail inmates. In March 2005, the inmates won that lawsuit against the county, which alleged that overcrowded jail conditions violated their constitutional rights.
Included in the settlement are requirements concerning jail staffing, improvement of jail conditions, the reopening of all jail facilities by Aug. 1, an allotment of jail beds for Youngstown city prisoners and an emergency prisoner release policy to prevent future overcrowding. The agreement also allowed for the housing of federal prisoners in the county jail.
In the mid-May settlement hearing in U.S. District Court in Akron, Judge Alice M. Batchelder of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, chairwoman of the three-judge jail oversight panel, said the settlement would have been unlikely without renewal of the county's half-percent sales tax by the voters May 8.
Some 69 percent of this year's $49.6 million in general fund spending goes to jail operations and other parts of the county's criminal justice system.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
The Mahoning County Sheriff's Department is on the way toward housing its expected total of 150 revenue-generating...
