Sheriff: Number of city inmates rising

By DAVID SKOLNICK

CITY HALL REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — When the city finalized a deal in March on what it would pay to house its prisoners at the Mahoning County Jail, Mayor Jay Williams said city officials would closely monitor the number of city inmates there.

That’s because the agreement called for the county to house the first 71 city misdemeanor prisoners free, except for the cost of the inmates’ meals (about $3 a day) and medical costs not covered by the county’s insurance.

Beginning with the 72nd city misdemeanor inmate through Youngstown’s maximum amount of 221 at the jail, the cost to the city would be $68.84 per person.

For the past two weeks, the number of city inmates in the county jail has exceeded the 71 number by about 25 each day, according to Sheriff Randall Wellington and Major James Lewandowski, the jail warden.

The city had 97 inmates at the jail Tuesday, Lewandowski said. The jail holds 506 inmates so more than 19 percent of those housed there Tuesday were from Youngstown.

An extra 25 inmates over the 71 figure costs the city $1,721 a day, or $12,047 a week.

Sheriff’s letter

Last week, Wellington wrote city officials a letter, something he described as an “unusual step,” to notify them of this issue.

“We want to give them notice,” he told The Vindicator on Tuesday. “It’s a wake-up call.”

Wellington said he didn’t want city officials coming to him in the future complaining that they weren’t told the bill was becoming costly. In the letter, he wrote that he wanted “to alert government officials of the spiraling costs of city prisoners.”

Lewandowski wrote city officials May 31 urging them to “take any necessary steps to try to manage bed space” at the jail because Youngstown was getting close to exceeding 71 inmates.

Mayor Jay Williams said he is well aware of the number of city inmates at the county jail.

“There is cause for concern,” he said. “The cost is something I’m concerned about. ...The county is making us aware of our obligations and the numbers. It’s a good thing that the sheriff is monitoring this closely.”

City officials plan to meet sometime in the next week or so to discuss how to keep the number of Youngstown inmates at the jail at a reasonable level, Williams said.

“I’m confident at this point we’ll come up with an amenable solution,” he said.

Williams said he has no plan to ask the police department to arrest fewer people or to tell the judges to reduce the bond amounts for those charged with criminal offenses. Perhaps there are those charged with nonviolent crimes who don’t have violent backgrounds who could be placed on house arrest pending trials rather than being held at the county jail, he said. That would be a less expense option, he said.

Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr., the municipal court’s presiding and administrative judge, agrees that city officials should discuss possible solutions. “It’s an ongoing issue,” he said.

Latest bill

The county sent a $19,292.92 bill Aug. 8 to the city for its prisoners at the jail from March through June.

Though final numbers aren’t in yet, Wellington and Lewandowski estimate the city’s July bill at $10,000, and probably $30,000 for last month because of the increase in prisoners.

Also, the two men gave a “conservative estimate” of $40,000 for the city’s cost of meals alone for September to December. That doesn’t include the cost of housing city inmates over the 71 number for the remaining four months of the year.

City council approved legislation in February to spend up to $125,000 annually to house city prisoners at the county jail. But Williams said at the time that the city would probably spend about $70,000 a year — or $20,000 more annually than it did in previous years — under the new agreement.

The estimate and expenses already incurred by the city exceed Williams’ $70,000 expected cost.

The city-county deal was a key component of a consent agreement that ended a class-action lawsuit won by inmates in March 2005 regarding understaffing and overcrowding at the jail that violated their civil rights.

skolnick@vindy.com