Courts give federal judge separate jail-issue requests

If the federal judge was trying to inspire a meeting of all judges, it didn't work.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Municipal and county court judges in Mahoning County think the way to alleviate overcrowding in the county jail is to designate a certain number of beds for each jurisdiction.
Common pleas court judges are more concerned about keeping repeat offenders locked up than with guaranteed jail space.
Their differing opinions were sent this week to U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr., who had asked for the judges' input by Friday. Judge Dowd has had jurisdiction over jail issues since inmates won a federal lawsuit over conditions last year.
Judge Dowd asked Judge James C. Evans, administrative judge of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, to establish a process for judges to respond to his request. Each group, representing Youngstown municipal, county and common pleas courts, submitted responses that Judge Evans said he mailed Wednesday to Judge Dowd.
"What I detected from all of the responses is that we will work with each other," Judge Evans said.
If Judge Dowd was trying to inspire a meeting of all judges, that didn't happen.
"We were hoping we would come up with a consensus, but it was impossible for whatever common pleas judges' reasons are. We couldn't get a meeting with them," Youngstown Municipal Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly said.
County Commissioner John McNally IV, chairman of the Criminal Justice Working Group, also hoped that all courts would come together to make one recommendation. The working group, which represents the courts, law enforcement and elected officials, may offer a collective plan on jail bed allotment in its final report to Judge Dowd that's due May 1, he said.
Common pleas judges invited other judges to meet with them but, because of scheduling conflicts, "we couldn't get everyone together," Judge Evans said.
In his cover letter to Judge Dowd, Judge Evans said he offered to assist Judge Dowd in setting up a judges' meeting.
Sharing county jail space isn't the only topic they have in common, but it's an important one.
Inmate population was capped at 296 last year. Capacity is 564. The cap was tied to the jail's staffing and funding levels. In response, judges reinstated a decade-old policy to grant emergency release to certain offenders. Some lower court judges said the policy was unfair to them, since they handle only misdemeanor cases, and began to issue "do not release" orders.
Court's concerns
Common pleas judges aren't seeking a fixed number of jail beds. "We must consider the people we should keep in jail," Judge Evans said. Other questions are whether too many people are being booked into jail and whether courts are slow to set hearings, he added.
Judge Evans hopes discussions about housing U.S. Marshal Service detainees at the county jail leads to more revenues to open the rest of the jail and possibly reopen the misdemeanant jail that closed last year, he said.
Youngstown Municipal Court's three judges requested 150 beds, which was based more on their needs than the inmate cap. Judge Kobly said the figure includes felony cases that begin at the municipal level and contempt of court cases involving people who fail to appear on scheduled court dates.
County court judges in Austintown, Boardman, Canfield and Sebring want to reserve one pod, which holds 57 inmates, plus separate space for 10 additional female inmates, McNally said.
Criticizes cap
Judge Kobly believes the municipal and county court judges' jail bed requests are reasonable, whereas the inmate cap of 296 is "totally unrealistic" and "always was an unreasonable number," she said.
Inmate population has exceeded 400 recently, but Sheriff Randall Wellington has been able to provide safe staffing levels because of few vacation requests by deputies and a postponement of training sessions, McNally said. Staffing will decrease as summer draws closer, vacation time increases and training resumes, he added.
Summer also brings more activity in the community and the potential for more criminal activity. "It's a little bit of a vicious circle," McNally said.
shaulis@vindy.com