Judges likely to set inmate caps

Let the federal court resolve the county jail conflict, a local administrative judge says.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A panel of three federal judges is likely to issue a prisoner release order for Mahoning County Jail, capping the number of inmates to be housed there and setting binding rules for all jurisdictions to follow, said Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who added that he would welcome such an order.
"They will probably put a cap on it, but they're probably going to order the whole place opened up and order the [county] commissioners to fund it," said Judge Evans, the court's administrative judge. "We need some heavier control by the three federal judges. I advocate: Let them come in and mandate what needs to be done and what all jurisdictions have to abide by," Judge Evans said.
"I believe a prisoner release order is necessary. I don't believe it has to be federal," said Judge Maureen A. Sweeney, presiding judge of the common pleas court. Judge Sweeney said she would prefer an order derived by local judges.
But Judges Evans and Sweeney agreed that a recent Ohio Supreme Court ruling that restricts a common pleas court release mechanism makes it more likely that the panel of federal judges, which will convene Thursday, will issue a prisoner release order.
What top court said
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled last week that Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly, of Youngstown Municipal Court, can conduct contempt-of-court proceedings against Mahoning County Sheriff Randall Wellington for releasing an inmate contrary to her instructions.
The state Supreme Court ruled that state law granting common pleas courts authority to review and approve jail policies "does not patently and unambiguously divest Judge Kobly of jurisdiction to enforce her sentencing entries.'' The sheriff freed the man, who was convicted of domestic violence, under a prisoner release mechanism the common pleas judges devised to limit the jail to 296 inmates.
The common pleas judges created that mechanism a few months after jail inmates won a class-action lawsuit against the county over jail conditions in March 2005. U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. then determined that the lockup was overcrowded and unsafe.
Earlier this month, Vincent M. Nathan, a jail expert appointed by the panel of federal judges, noted 486 inmates occupied the partly-open lockup in mid-November and concluded that only a prisoner release order limiting the jail to 288 inmates will remedy what he termed the jail's unconstitutional overcrowding. The inmates' lawyers then requested an injunction from the federal judges capping the jail population at 288.
The sheriff has asked the county commissioners for an extra 3.8 million to bring his 2007 budget to 19.7 million to allow full reopening of the jail and to raise its capacity to 564 inmates.
Hearing set
Judge Dowd announced last week that he and U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster and Judge Alice M. Batchelder, of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, who make up the jail oversight panel, will conduct a hearing on the injunction request at 9:30 a.m. Thursday in federal court in Akron.
Judges Evans and Sweeney said they believe the Ohio Supreme Court decision modifies but does not void the common pleas judges' prisoner release mechanism. "It does not nullify it. It changes it to the extent that it allows the lower court judge to put a do-not-release order on, and then the sheriff would have to abide by it," Judge Evans said.
However, Anthony J. Farris, deputy city law director, had a different interpretation of the state Supreme Court decision. "The entire prisoner release order from the common pleas judges is illegal," he said. "[The state Supreme Court justices] said the sheriff has no authority to release prisoners based on overcrowding or understaffing" of the lockup and must arrange to confine the prisoners, even if it means taking them to another jail, Farris said.
The city and county are negotiating bed allotments in the county jail for the city's misdemeanor prisoners and payments from the city to house them. County Prosecutor Paul Gains, who represents the county commissioners, declined to comment for this story.
But Gains said earlier that he wouldn't be surprised if a federal prisoner release order is issued Thursday or soon thereafter if the city and county don't reach an agreement before then.
"Both sides have to recognize that there's a middle ground somewhere, and that's what I think the federal judges will find," Judge Evans said. He said he thinks the federal judges will have to issue an order that will prevail over parties who now have differing interpretations of the Ohio Supreme Court decision.
Judge Sweeney said she doesn't think the federal judges will impose a simple cap of 288 inmates because that wouldn't differentiate who should and should not be jailed. It's more likely they'll set jail bed allotments for common pleas, municipal and county courts, she said, adding that she thinks the highest priority should be to jail violent offenders.
Under any release order, she concluded: "Unfortunately, you're going to have some people on the streets that you don't want on the streets."