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Court must OK jail, staff cuts
TweetBy PETER H. MILLIKEN
milliken@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County Jail
Due to budget cuts part of the Mahoning County Jail may be closed.
Inmates sit in a television-viewing pod at the Mahoning County jail in downtown Youngstown. County officials will be in federal court in Cleveland on Wednesday, seeking permission to close half the jail and lay off one-third of the sheriff’s staff, effective March 28.
A prisoner housing unit is empty at the county’s minimum-security misdemeanor jail in downtown Youngstown. Mahoning County Sheriff Randall A. Wellington proposes to close that jail as an overnight facility. The closing results from revenue projections for 2010 that fall far short of projections. The sheriff’s department is expected to lose between $4 million and $5.7 million this year.
Mahoning County officials will be in federal court in Cleveland on Wednesday, seeking permission to close half the jail and lay off one-third of the sheriff’s department’s staff due to the county’s financial crisis.
City and county officials and lawyers for inmates who won a lawsuit over jail crowding will participate in an informal, closed-door status conference with U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster.
The meeting follows Friday’s mailing by Sheriff Randall A. Wellington of letters to 101 staff members giving them the required two-week notice that they’re to be laid off, effective March 28.
Wellington said the cuts are necessary because George J. Tablack, county administrator, projects the sheriff’s department will lose between $4 million and $5.7 million due to declining revenues from taxes and payments for federal prisoners. The sheriff spent $17.5 million last year. His projected full-year budget for this year could be as low as $11.8 million.
When the cuts are made, the sheriff said he won’t have room in the jail for revenue-generating federal inmates.
Meanwhile, the county’s common pleas judges met behind closed doors for 45 minutes Monday morning with county commissioners to discuss the budget crisis and for 25 minutes with Wellington and Sgt. Thomas DeGenova of the sheriff’s department to discuss court security.
“The judges recognize that the county’s having [financial] problems, and we plan to cooperate with the commissioners in solving them,” said Judge Maureen A. Sweeney, who described the tone of the meeting as cordial.
The sheriff said he wants the judges’ permission to reduce the staff assigned to court security as part of the cutbacks in his department, and Judge Sweeney said the judges would consider such a proposal if it wouldn’t jeopardize security.
One of the city’s lawyers said he’ll oppose the county’s jail cutback request at the Wednesday meeting because it violates the consent decree that settled the inmates’ lawsuit.
The city, which has been a significant player in jail finances, had an agreement with the county to pay for its misdemeanor prisoners after its 71st prisoner. Anthony Farris, deputy city law director, said the city can’t afford to renew that agreement, which expired Feb. 23.
“We’re going up in an effort to hopefully work with the parties to come to a resolution that is in the best interests of the community,” Mayor Jay Williams said.
“The county is very appreciative of the role that Judge Polster played three years ago in helping us keep our jail open, and we welcome any assistance, particularly from the federal court,” Tablack said.
The three-year consent decree expires May 17, but Farris said federal court supervision of the jail could extend beyond that date.
Farris said he’ll oppose the jail cutbacks because it violates the consent decree, which requires the facility be fully open and staffed, and he predicted the court won’t approve the county’s request.
The status conference follows an announcement by Tablack that income from revenue-generating city and federal prisoners in the county jail has plummeted from $865,231 in the first two months of 2009 to $191,879 in the same period this year.
The U.S. Marshal’s service has reduced the number of federal prisoners housed in the jail in favor of housing more prisoners in Cuyahoga County jail, which is closer to most of the federal courts, Wellington said.
The county gets $80 per inmate per day for prisoners sent to the jail from outside sources.
Based on information from the sheriff’s office, the county budget commission last week reduced this year’s estimate of prisoner housing revenue from outside sources from $4,185,000, which it established last September, to $810,000, for a loss of $3,375,000. The commission also reduced its estimate of all revenue for the county’s general fund for 2010 from $57 million to $54 million.
The budget commission consists of Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, Prosecutor Paul J. Gains and Treasurer Lisa A. Antonini.
Last year, the county collected $3,617,313 for housing federal and city inmates in its jail, Sciortino said.
“The city can ill afford to continue paying twice for what every other community pays for only once,” Williams said. He was referring to the expired prisoner housing agreement, under which the city paid $3 million over three years in addition to taxes its residents would normally pay for county justice services.
“However, our position is that we want to do everything within our power to work with the county to resolve this issue,” concerning maintaining jail operations, the mayor said.
Another matter open for discussion would be whether the county’s minimum-security jail should remain open, Farris said.
The sheriff said Friday the minimum-security jail would cease to be an overnight facility but would continue as a staging area for inmates in the day- reporting work program.
Comments
Vote NO on the 1/2% county sales tax. It's time the commissioners learn how to eliminate the term "tax and spend" from their mindsert. Time for public sector employees to step up with pay cuts, helathcare cost increases, and elimination of their special early retirement pensions like the rest of the private sector has learned to do.
Too bad you dont know what you're talking about. For the record I dont work at the county so we'll get that out of the way first. Second, the county deputies already took pay cuts, increased health care and there is no such thing as "special early retirement pensions". The retirement pension program you are referring to is called "Drop" and it requires you to work longer, not shorter. Get your facts straight before you put your two cents in.
I'm sure that an extra 1% on top of the 1/2% sales tax renewal would help to alleviate this situation . Crime is big business in Mahoning County .
My question is, what other departments are being cut? I believe this is another intimidation effort by the commissioners to "scare" people into voting for the tax issue. Politicians have become shameless. How about cutting all county offices down to four days a week. Crime is bad enough, this will only make it worse. I'm all for the recall.
Did not Mahoning County use a commercial to get a levy passed showing prisoners walking out of the county jail? Now it may become real. Maybe if the prisoners were treated like prisoners and not like guests at a resort , confining them would be cheaper. Put 4 in a cell and take the TV's away.
GTX66 :
" Put 4 in a cell and take the TV's away."
It wont happen . The liberals want them to feel good while in jail . Soon they will have girls from the massage parlors coming it to service them on our tax dollars .
Stan, that comment is ridiculous, no party wants to see our inmates walk out of jail. Quit blaming everything on the liberal and realize the economic detriments conservatives have left us with for the last 25 years. I agree jail should be jail, but that still doesnt eliminate the cost. That jail was not built to house as many inmates as it already does. the system is overcrowded as you can read the inmates won in a court battle that it was disgusting how they were crowding. The county commissioners have plans to cut the court houses down one day, all of them and their workers have given up at least 10% of their pay, and even with the 1/2% sales tax passing, the county is still running in the red. We can't continue to provide the same services with no more coming in. As we lose jobs and tenants in houses, we lose revenue. WE NEED JOBS! enough said. Vote for the tax, we can't cut any more. You'll really be whining when they have to cut the services not provided by law. Another side note is that 1/2% is one of the lowest in the state, and is the lowest of all county's with a expenditure list like ours.
Economic detriments conservatives have left us with? Maybe I'm just too young to ever remember any conservatives in office in this county! And while I agree with the fact that our economic downturn shouldn't be blamed on liberals, Stan is right, crime is out of control due to liberal policies. Jail needs to be a place no one ever wants to go, not the case in this day and age. Take away amenities, pack them in an actually treat them like inmates and we could drastically shorten sentences and have the same affect that these longer, comfortable living sentences go. Time to practice some assembly line justice, swift and severe. Hopefully one day the Mahoning Valley returns to the bustling place it once was.
Stan-3,807 comments. Let's turn off the pc and I'll take you out to meet some girls!
Know whats sickening? Looking at the picture of that jail and seeing the garbage of society in a facility that is nicer than some of the schools in this valley.
I have said several times that the tax issue was going to be a hard sell due to the fact that people do not trust those in charge. The feeling is too much wasteful spending by the commissioners. If the tax passes, fine, if not, the commissioners will take the fall. Either way, a recall should be done. The county deserves better. Too many officials are too comfortable in their jobs.
Maybe if the judges didn't sentence people to years in jail over driving violations then the jail wouldn't have to shut down. Realistically, it's the judges fault for over-crowding the jails. Start putting people in Lorain, not the county jail for sentences over a year!!
sweatpea :
"Stan-3,807 comments. Let's turn off the pc and I'll take you out to meet some girls! "
Fine idea ! I need to find a quick witted one to do my posting while I go fishing . Steelhead and Salmon are waiting for me at Lake Erie .
I believe that the Commissioners, the over-paid Administrator, and a number of other employees get 24% of their pay deposited directly into their PERS retirement accounts. Not a dime from their pockets. The tax payers are paying for this perk. What a joke. Why don't they start the cutting with themselves.