MAHONING VALLEY Regional jail idea captivates officials

A feasibility study would cost about $40,000, officials said.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Trumbull and Mahoning County officials agree that creating a regional jail would be beneficial to the Valley, but no one is quite sure how to make it happen.
Officials from both counties met Thursday during the Trumbull County Community Corrections Board regular meeting and discussed the idea of transforming the empty private prison in Youngstown into a multicounty jail.
"It's a great idea, but what do we need to do to get it?" asked Capt. Tim Bowers of the city police department.
Vince Peterson and James Corfman, members of the community corrections board, suggested that a feasibility study may be the next step. The study would probably cost about $40,000 but it would be a way to determine if the project would be possible.
"We are moving slow with this but I think it's better than being too aggressive," Peterson said. "We need to make sure it's something that would work for everyone."
Altiere's idea
The idea was first floated by Trumbull Sheriff Thomas Altiere in September.
Corfman noted that officials toured the facility a few months ago.
The 2,106-bed medium-security prison has been empty since July 2001 when the federal government transferred the last of its 1,700 inmates from the private facility, built in the 1990s by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America.
Mahoning and Trumbull County officials now hope it could be operated jointly by area sheriffs as a multijurisdiction jail to ease crowding at county lockups. It is not yet clear who would run the facility or what jurisdictions would contribute inmates or funding.
Those questions would probably be answered with the feasibility study, said Ernest Cook, chief of operations at the Trumbull County jail.
Filled to capacity
The five-year-old Trumbull County Jail is already filled to its maximum and occasionally has to turn away prisoners arrested on misdemeanor charges. It is not unusual to have 330 prisoners booked into the 280-bed facility, and the inmate count occasionally tops 350, Cook said.
The new Mahoning County Jail also is full, he said.
"We need to do something," Cook said.
sinkovich@vindy.com