Release creates conflict for judges, fact finder says

The special master wrote that municipal judges feel they have been ignored.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Mahoning County emergency release mechanism for jail inmates and one or more municipal judges' "do not release" orders are in direct conflict and need to be clarified, a special master says.
"There continues to be no provision in the emergency release mechanism under which the jail is operating to accommodate misdemeanants guilty of direct contempt of court," Toledo attorney Vincent M. Nathan wrote. "...Sheriff [Randall] Wellington finds himself in a difficult position."
Nathan's letter to U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. was filed Tuesday in Akron federal court. Nathan is acting as special master, a fact finder, for Judge Dowd.
Situation details
After inmates won a class-action lawsuit in March in Judge Dowd's court, the parties involved agreed that the inmate population would not exceed 296. The jail can hold 564.
The 13-stage emergency release mechanism was devised by Mahoning County common pleas judges.
In his letter, Nathan referred to comments he made in an earlier report that Youngstown municipal court judges feel they have been ignored and the emergency release process leaves them powerless to operate an effective court.
"Particularly in the case of defendants guilty of direct contempt of court, I believe that clarification for the sheriff would be helpful," Nathan said in his letter to the judge.
Youngstown Municipal Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly, for one, has been writing "sheriff do not release" on paperwork sent to the jail when she wants certain defendants to be held.
The judge has scheduled a show-cause hearing for the sheriff for next week to determine why one inmate she ordered held was released.