Officials want services for jail inmates reviewed

The sheriff says his request to terminate CCA’s services is not politically motivated.

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County administrator and a county commissioner are calling for an independent expert to review the educational and counseling services being provided to county jail inmates.

Those services are at the center of a dispute between Sheriff Randall Wellington and Dr. Richard Billak, executive director of the Community Corrections Association, which has political overtones in next year’s sheriff’s election.

Saying other agencies can provide the services at no cost to the county, Wellington is asking the county commissioners to terminate CCA’s services, which he said have cost the county $1.8 million over the past 10 years.

While that money was being spent, the sheriff lamented that repeated county sales tax defeats by voters forced him to lay off deputies and close the misdemeanor jail and parts of the main jail.

Scott Cochran, CCA’s lawyer, said CCA has received several written complaints from inmates who said they were being denied required services in the county’s newly reopened misdemeanor jail.

“We’re still under a federal consent decree,” said county Administrator George Tablack, referring to a 2003 class-action lawsuit won by county jail inmates, who alleged that overcrowding violated their constitutional rights. “The last thing we want is to be brought back into federal court.”

County Commissioner David Ludt said Thursday he wants an opinion on the matter from Vincent Nathan, the jail expert appointed by the federal court who substantiated the inmates’ complaints in the 2003 lawsuit.

Although Wellington said the county commissioners must decide the fate of CCA’s services to jail inmates, Anthony Traficanti, chairman of the county commissioners, said he wasn’t sure of that. The matter is being studied by the county prosecutor’s office.

Tablack characterized the sheriff and the county commissioners as “co-partners” in jail management.

“I don’t have any leanings” on the CCA issue, said Commissioner John McNally.

Minimum state jail standards require that inmates have the opportunity for alcohol and drug abuse treatment, academic training and psychological services, and the sheriff said both the main and misdemeanor jails meet those standards.

In a Thursday news conference, the sheriff said he wants CCA’s services in the main jail terminated to save county taxpayers $235,000 a year — enough money to staff a 52-bed prisoner housing unit for a year.

CCA, a halfway facility that provides services in the jail on a month-to-month basis, has asked the county to enter into a $235,000 contract renewal for 2008.

In the misdemeanor jail, Wellington said academic training is being provided by the Youngstown Board of Education, and alcohol and drug counseling is being done by Meridian Services and Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime, both agencies of the county’s Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services Board.

The sheriff said he entered into a memorandum of understanding in February with the ADAS board to provide the alcohol and drug treatment services using state grant funds.

Wellington said he has no complaints about the quality of CCA’s services.

“This is strictly about money,” Wellington said. “Should we pay $235,000 for the same services that we could get for nothing?”

Stark, Trumbull, Lorain, Geauga and Lake counties provide the education and rehabilitation services at no cost to their county budgets by using community volunteers and county service providers, the sheriff said.

Saying he called for termination of CCA’s contract in 2002, Wellington emphatically denied Billak’s earlier assertion that the sheriff’s call for firing CCA is politically motivated.

Billak said he openly supports David Aey, who is challenging the sheriff in next year’s Democratic primary.

“We are qualified, and we do an exemplary job” of serving jail inmates, Cochran said. “He [the sheriff] can’t ignore his statutory responsibilities of providing basic minimum standards in the jail,” Cochran said, adding that counseling and academic services are essential to prevent inmates from returning to jail as repeat offenders.

Cochran said he believes ADAS lacks adequate funds to provide the required services.

Doris Primm, county ADAS board executive director, was on vacation and unavailable to comment concerning the amount of annual state money available to provide the services and the extent of services being provided.

Board of education officials did not respond Thursday to a request for the same information about the academic component of the inmate services.