Jail mismanagement demoralizing, officials say

STRUTHERS — City council continued its push to have the Mahoning County jail fully used by giving a second reading to a resolution asking county commissioners to provide funding needed to fully staff and operate the lockup.

Tonight’s action came just hours before a hearing scheduled today in U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, conducted by a panel of three federal judges, which could result in a prisoner-release order for the jail.

The action has been requested by lawyers for the inmates who filed a federal class-action lawsuit in 2003 over jail conditions. U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. has been overseeing jail operations since March 2005 when he determined the lockup was overcrowded and unsafe.

What Struthers is seeking is the incarceration of more prisoners.

The major complaint of council and the administration of Mayor Daniel Mamula is that people convicted of misdemeanors and nonviolent crimes are being put back on the street without serving their sentences.

John Sveda, the city’s safety-service director, said such release of prisoners is responsible for increased crime in the city. He added it also is leading to additional financial burdens placed on operating the city’s 12-day jail, and the having a demoralizing effect on law enforcement personnel and residents here and in other area communities.

“We need to keep prisoners in jail to keep our citizens safe. The situation has to be fixed,” Sveda said.

Mamula said the main reason the county sales tax was renewed in May 2005 was because of a promise by commissioners to fully use the jail. At this point, one-third of the facility in downtown Youngstown is not in use, and the other two-thirds is understaffed, he said.

It is time for commissioners to come up with the money to bring the jail up to standards with adequately trained staff, the mayor added.

Councilman Jerry L. Shields, D-at large, said he read a report on the jail by prison expert Vincent M. Nathan and concluded that the jail has problems in both maintenance and training of personnel, as well as overcrowding in the area that is being used.

Nevertheless, said Shields, the promise with passage of the sales tax was that the jail would be fully operational.

“Now, we’re asking that the commissioners do what they said they would do,” Shields said.

Two councilmen — Terry P. Stocker, D-at large, and Daniel R. Yemma, D-3rd — opposed the resolution.

Yemma, who initially supported it, said after reading the Nathan report he believes that throwing money at the problem would be wasteful because of systemic problems at the jail.

Also, he thinks the resolution is ill-timed given today’s court hearing.

Stocker said he is not totally against the resolution, but he wants to hear from county Prosecutor Paul Gains and Sheriff Randall Wellington on jail conditions before acting.

Stocker said the jail conditions, particularly mixing of younger and older prisoners, would seem to require a greater emphasis on management.