Consultants to present findings on jail's status

The federal judge and special master will attend the meeting.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Next week, two jail experts who analyzed the Mahoning County criminal justice system will be in town to present their findings to a diverse group -- including the federal judge who presided over an inmates' class-action lawsuit.
At the request of Sheriff Randall A. Wellington, the U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Corrections assigned consultants Mark A. Cuniff and Michael R. Jones to assess the jail operation. The consultants' work, which included a jail bed-utilization analysis, began in October.
Cuniff has been executive director of the National Association of Criminal Justice Planners since 1977. Jones is the criminal justice planning manager for Jefferson County, Colo.
Interviews
Cuniff and Jones will be in town Monday and Tuesday to conduct interviews with the county prosecutor, assistant prosecutors, commissioners, common pleas and county judges, auditor, clerk of court, chief deputy and court administrator. The consultants may also meet with representatives of the probation department, Community Corrections Association, community service providers and private citizens.
The interviews were scheduled by the sheriff's department.
In a letter to the sheriff, the consultants said the interviews will allow them to learn the officials' ideas of how the county can maintain an effective criminal justice system during the remedial period of the federal lawsuit. In early March, the inmates' Akron attorneys -- who contended the jail was overcrowded and unsafe -- won the lawsuit.
Meeting
On Wednesday, Cuniff and Jones will hold an exit meeting at the sheriff's department. Those expected to attend include the sheriff, warden, commissioners, municipal police chiefs, common pleas and municipal court presiding judges, county prosecutor, municipal court prosecutors, defense attorneys' representative and more.
U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. and Toledo attorney Vincent M. Nathan, special master overseeing the remedial period of the lawsuit, will attend. The judge appointed Nathan as a fact-finder.
In late March, the parties involved in the lawsuit voluntarily closed one tower of the jail, which capped the facility's population at 296; it can hold 564. With no money to recall deputies due to a slashed budget, common pleas judges devised an emergency jail-release policy to keep the inmate population under 300.
The population typically hovers around 330, the warden has said.
At Nathan's suggestion, a working group of city and county officials formed several months ago to come up with solutions to make the jail constitutionally sound. The working group has seven subcommittees searching for remedies to alleviate jail overcrowding.
The working group includes most of the officials being interviewed by Cuniff and Jones.
The consultants' full report is due two weeks after Wednesday's meeting. The report is expected to assist the working group in its formulation of policies that can keep the county in compliance with the federal lawsuit.
meade@vindy.com