Full Mahoning jail reopening delayed 4 weeks

Corrections officer training classes were delayed in May because of a lack of money.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Reopening of the misdemeanant jail and last section of the Mahoning County Jail will be delayed about four weeks — causing the county to miss the Aug. 1 deadline for reopening the facilities, Mahoning County Sheriff Randall Wellington said.

“We’re about three weeks behind,” Wellington said Tuesday of getting new deputies their corrections officer training so that they can completely staff the two facilities.

Eighteen deputies graduated last week from the three-week training and were sworn in as deputies. This week they are serving an orientation period, in which they spend a week becoming familiar with the layout of the facility and seeing the work they will be doing first-hand, he said.

Another class will begin training July 2, complete it three weeks later, and enable the jail to reopen the last pod of 36 to 52 inmates July 26, Wellington said.

The reopening

Another class will begin training July 30 and be ready to reopen the 96-bed misdemeanant jail on Commerce Street at the end of August, Wellington said.

The settlement of a federal class-action lawsuit filed against the county by jail inmates, who alleged jail overcrowding violated their constitutional rights, requires the county to fully reopen the facilities by Aug. 1.

Wellington said the reason for missing the deadline is that the jail was about three weeks late in seeing the return of federal inmates to the main jail May 23. The federal inmates bring in revenue of $68.84 per day, and Wellington said the lack of funding from the federal inmates held up the hiring of deputies, their training and therefore the reopening.

“We just didn’t have the revenue,” Wellington said.

Late training

He explained that a training class that would have started in early May did not actually begin until the end of May because the money was not available to hire the deputies who would have taken the class.

Classes resumed again May 29 — once the revenue from the federal inmates started coming in, he said.

When asked whether there will be consequences of missing the Aug. 1 deadline, Wellington said, “I don’t see it being a problem. We have a valid reason.”

Robert Armbruster, the lawyer for the inmates, could not be reached to comment on the delay.

Reopening the last pod of 36 to 52 inmates will allow the jail to reach the main jail’s capacity of 456 inmates and the combined main jail and misdemeanant jail capacity of 548. As of Tuesday, the main jail had 430 inmates.

The new deputies received their training in the roll-call room at the jail from command officers within the jail, Wellington said.

runyan@vindy.com