Now isn't the time for posturing over the jail

Youngstown's double-digit homicide rate and the other crimes that have left residents with a deepening sense of anxiety demand that city and Mahoning County officials work together on a solution to the jail problem. Criminals who should be behind bars are on the streets because the county jail is under a federal court order that restricts the number of inmates.
But a solution won't be found so long as city and county officials keep sniping at each other.
The three judges of the Youngstown Municipal Court, Mayor George M. McKelvey and members of city council are understandably upset about a prisoner release program that has kept criminals on the streets. The program was developed by Sheriff Randall Wellington to comply with a federal court order that required him to lower the county jail population.
For their part, county officials, including Wellington and commissioners David Ludt, Anthony Traficanti and John McNally IV, insist that they aren't happy with the current state of affairs but that their hands are tied. They say they're doing all they can to get things back on track so that the war on crime in the city is not undermined.
But saber rattling in city hall and the county courthouse isn't helpful.
The threat by the mayor and council to file a lawsuit to force the sheriff to house all the city criminals who should be behind bars is a lightening rod. Youngstown Law Director Iris Guglucello says that they want to test the county's reaction.
Youngstown's contribution
Well, county Prosecutor Paul Gains gave a preview of the reaction when he said that if the city is unhappy with the per-prisoner fee it must pay, "let them build their own jail." And Gains added an argument that has been heard for years from the county: "Most of the prisoners in the county jail are from Youngstown."
There is nothing to be gained from this kind of verbal clash. The situation calls for urgent action, which won't occur if there is a lawsuit or if the county prosecutor clings to his strident notions of how the county jail came into being in the first place.
As we have pointed out in the past, the criminal justice center on Fifth Avenue -- it replaced the lockup that was located in the building next to the courthouse and the city jail -- came about through an agreement between the city and the county. The city was given assurances by then Sheriff Edward Nemeth and the commissioners at the time which the mayor and council have every right to insist on being honored.
The city has been paying to house prisoners charged under city ordinances, but the county is responsible for paying for those charged under state laws.
The housing of prisoners in the criminal justice center is not an either/or proposition, as Gains is making it out to be.
In the end, however, the issue is one of public safety, and in that regard all elected officials have a responsibility to come up with a solution to the crime problem in the city of Youngstown.