MAHONING COUNTY Inmates will move

The U.S. government pays nearly $70 a day for each federal inmate in the county jail.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Some inmates are about to get the heave-ho from the Mahoning County Jail, but they aren't being set free.
Instead, they'll be shifted to other lockups as soon as room can be found for them.
They are federal inmates being kept at the jail as a courtesy to the U.S. Marshal's Office. The problem is that more and more of them have been coming in, driving up the inmate population at the lockup.
There were 587 inmates in the county jail system Thursday, said Sheriff Randall Wellington; 499 in the main jail on Fifth Avenue, and 88 in the minimum-security lockup on Commerce Street.
Included in that total are 58 federal prisoners, which is about three times the number normally housed at the jail.
"We've been gradually creeping up with those federal inmates," Wellington said.
Overcrowded
The problem is that the jails are built to hold only 542 people under normal circumstances. Rather than releasing county inmates, the sheriff has notified federal authorities that they'll have to pick up their inmates and house them elsewhere.
He said 10 per week will be put out of the jail until the overall number is back within allowable limits.
"We can't just turn them all out at once. We have to be fair to the federal government in this," Wellington said. "I'm sure they're scurrying around just to find places to take these people."
David Troutman, U.S. Marshal for the northern district of Ohio, could not be reached to comment.
In the meantime, Wellington said, inmates are doubled up in some cells to accommodate the overflow. Inmates complain about that arrangement, but it's legal and acceptable under state jail standards, the sheriff said.
Wellington said the double-bunking is only in the minimum-security jail and among minor offenders in the main jail. There is no double-bunking in the maximum-security pods at the jail, he added.
Billing the government
The county bills the federal government $67 a day for each federal inmate kept in the jail. They're at the jail awaiting arraignment or trials in federal court on various charges.
Wellington said the county is under no obligation to keep the federal inmates.
He said the number of federal inmates at the jail has risen since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. More people are being charged with federal crimes instead of state crimes, Wellington explained.
bjackson@vindy.com