Sheriff should implement fail-safe prisoner checks

Mahoning County Sheriff Randall Wellington contends that a "people problem" and not a "system problem" is responsible for the release of a prisoner from the county jail who should actually have been on his way to the state penitentiary.
We would suggest to the sheriff that his people are the system. Their failure to monitor the goings-on in the Mahoning County Criminal Justice Center reflects a failure in the jail's operation.
Wellington's decision to discipline 11 deputies who, in one way or another, were responsible for Brian Lamar James getting out of jail instead of being sent to the prison is warranted. But we would also urge the sheriff to conduct a review of the prisoner-monitoring procedures in other county jails around the state of Ohio.
As Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court points out, James' release was the second time in a year such a mix-up had occurred. The first time, it involved an individual charged with a minor offense. Even so, Judge Krichbaum got an assurance from Wellington that it would not happen again.
Felonious assault: Yet last month, James, who was sentenced to two years in the Lorain Correctional Facility on a felonious assault conviction, was released from the county jail because deputies got his records mixed up with another Brian James -- whose middle name is Jamel.
Brian Lamar James was told to report to the Adult Parole Authority, which was where the mistake was caught. The probation officer was expecting Brian Jamel James and so when Brian Lamar James showed up the office notified the court.
He was immediately taken into custody and is now in the state pen.
The sheriff points out that deputies should have checked the inmates' court case numbers, birth dates and Social Security numbers to make sure that they had the right person. "They should have caught it coming down the line," Wellington says.
That they didn't suggests that a flaw exists in the procedures now in place dealing with the release of prisoners. The safeguards that are supposed to be in place obviously aren't adequate.
Training: Wellington's comment that attention to detail would have made the difference does raise the question of training. Given the fact that the Mahoning County Criminal Justice Center handles nearly 700 admissions and discharges a month, it's time for Wellington and his top brass to review all the procedures pertaining to the jail.
If it's a matter of inadequate staffing, he can make that case to the county commissioners and request additional funding. But since 11 employees were involved in the process, it wouldn't seem that a lack of manpower was at fault.