MAHONING COUNTY Program to help nonviolent inmates falters

The county applied for a state grant but was denied.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A plan to keep nonviolent offenders out of the Mahoning County Jail is fading away just months after it started.
Officials say that, as is the case with so many other problems in the county, a lack of money is the reason.
In the meantime, the number of inmates in the jail has continued to rise to the point that a group of inmates is suing the county in federal court, alleging that overcrowding and other conditions are violating their civil rights.
There are more than 700 inmates in the jail, located on Fifth Avenue, with an additional 100 or so housed in the minimum-security lockup across the street. About 80 of the 700 jail inmates are federal prisoners for which the county is reimbursed by the federal government.
The county launched a screening program over the summer, aimed at identifying people who were being held in the jail awaiting trial for nonviolent crimes. Those who qualified were to be released into treatment programs or other means of monitoring them until their court appearances.
Community Corrections Association, which has offices on Market Street, had agreed to staff the facility without charge until it got off the ground and a funding source could be located.
State grant denied
The county applied for a $200,000 grant in May from the Ohio Department of Justice, and said that would be enough to hire four full-time employees to staff the program beginning in January.
But Richard Billak, CCA chief executive officer, said the grant application was denied, leaving the program without funding.
"It's still in place, but it's having minimal impact," Billak said of the screening program. He said CCA now screens inmates for possible release only if requested by a defense attorney.
An ad hoc committee of local court and safety officials began planning the inmate screening system in January, based on a similar program being used in Summit County. They wanted to reduce the number of inmates in the jail, thereby cutting the cost of operating the jail.
"That's still a huge concern," said Commissioner David Ludt, noting that the sheriff's department is the county's most expensive general fund department.
Commissioners have long said they want to find ways to reduce operating costs at the jail.
"But we have no direct control over that, so we have to ask for help from the people who do control it," said Commissioner Vicki Allen Sherlock.
Urged screening program
That's why the county pushed the screening program, hoping to cut down the number of people who are not serving actual court sentences in jail. A Vindicator survey earlier this year determined that about 70 percent of inmates were awaiting trial.
Joseph Caruso, county special projects director, said his office is looking for other grants and possible funding sources for the screening program, but none have been found so far.
In the meantime, Billak said CCA will start working with judges in the county's municipal and misdemeanor courts, asking them to consider modifying sentences of nonviolent offenders who are serving jail time.
He said judges could order defendants to perform community service, place them on electronically monitored house arrest or put them in a halfway house.
"It's not like you would just shave time off their sentences and put them back on the street with nothing," Billak said. "There will still be some sort of sanction involved."
He said there are usually between 100 and 150 such inmates in the jail at any given time.
"That is going to be our target population," Billak said.
He said the lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court by eight inmates, will force the county to take action on reducing the number of inmates.
"You can't get to where conditions should be until the numbers are reduced," he said.
bjackson@vindy.com