Group predicts more cases, but little money for facility

The working group has six subcommittees whose reports are due next week.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Criminal cases in Mahoning County are projected to be up nearly 54 percent this year from 1999, with no money to handle the increase or fully staff the jail.
Those dire predictions are contained in a 19-page report filed Tuesday in Akron federal court by Linette Stratford, an assistant county prosecutor representing the county's criminal justice working group. The group was formed at the behest of Toledo attorney Vincent M. Nathan, special master overseeing the jail.
Nathan is acting as a fact finder for U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr., who is taking steps to make the overcrowded and understaffed jail constitutionally sound. Dowd appointed Nathan after inmates won a class-action lawsuit in March.
The parties then 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 working group has six subcommittees searching for remedies to alleviate jail overcrowding. The subcommittees' reports are due next week, Stratford said in her report.
Another subcommittee was formed recently to discuss the possibility of a public defender's office. Indigent defendants now receive court-appointed lawyers.
Some numbers
In Tuesday's report, Clerk of Court Tony Vivo's summary of activity for 1999 through this year was included. He noted that 1,172 criminal cases were filed in 1999 and the projection for this year is 1,800 cases.
Although the clerk of court staffing is up five employees from 1999, the overall caseload increase for the timespan is 45 percent. With no funding for additional staff, the clerk's office is about six weeks behind in processing filings, Stratford wrote.
Two members of the group, Commissioner John A. McNally IV and common pleas Judge Maureen A. Sweeney, met with representatives of the Ohio Supreme Court's Judicial Services Division a week ago to seek assistance. The potential exists for assigning a visiting judge to handle criminal cases to aid in eliminating the backlog. The decision about a visiting judge rests with the chief justice.
Auditor's assessments
Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, meanwhile, projected expenditures for 2005 at $51 million and a collection of only $42.3 million in 2006 -- even with collection of the full 1 percent sales tax, Stratford wrote. She pointed out that commissioners refinanced about $7.3 million against the 2006 budget to keep one tower of the jail open through the end of this year and that money must be paid back by the end of 2007.
Sciortino's options to counter the projected deficit include recouping from the state $2.8 million used to pay for electronic voting systems in 2001. Also, 2006 is a re-evaluation year for real estate and he is hoping tax revenues will increase, Stratford wrote.
Despite potential sources of funding in 2005, the auditor projected no growth in sales tax and his office is looking at an increase in utility costs, employee retirement and health costs.
Stratford said in her report that the prosecutor's office, which hired five assistants in late September to speed up the disposition of criminal cases, resolved 18 cases so far. The 18 defendants were long-term inmates who had been in the jail more than a year, she said.