Fixing the jail

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County commissioners have passed a resolution of necessity for purchase and installation of two new chillers and related air handling system equipment for the county jail for $645,547.

The resolution, unanimously passed today, was necessary to remedy jail facilities deficiencies noted by a jail expert appointed by a panel of three federal judges, said Commissioner John McNally. “Air conditioning has been a problem,” in the lockup, McNally said.

The chillers and related equipment, which will come from Johnson Controls, will replace current equipment, McNally said, adding that the county sheriff’s and facilities staffs and engineers have told the commissioners the chillers need to be replaced.

The expert, Vincent M. Nathan, cited in his recent report to the judges a series of jail building maintenance problems, many of which he said stem from stress placed on fixtures due to overcrowding. Located at 110 Fifth Ave. in downtown Youngstown, the $35.7 million jail opened in 1996.

Nathan also concluded that overcrowding makes the partially open jail a security disaster waiting to happen and recommended that the judges issue a prisoner release order capping the jail at 288 inmates, with a practical operating limit of 268. The judges have set a hearing on issuance of such an order for May.

This month, Sheriff Randall Wellington asked the commissioners for an additional $3.8 million, raising his budget for next year to $19.7 million, to allow him to reopen the entire jail.