Does jail crisis loom for county?

By Peter H. Milliken

A commissioner said the county needs 150 revenue-generating prisoners to keep the jail open.

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County officials are concerned about the prospect of a direct federal contract with the private prison on Hubbard Road to house revenue-generating federal inmates.

County officials fear such a contract may cause a costly reduction after Jan. 1 in the number of federal inmates in the Mahoning County jail.

“We’re not going to be able to keep that jail open at the capacity that it is right now,” without about 150 revenue-generating prisoners, either from the federal government or the city, said county Commissioner David N. Ludt.

Officials of the county commissioners’, prosecutor’s and sheriff’s offices went to Cleveland last week, where they conferred in chambers with a panel of three federal judges on this issue.

County officials sought the meeting with the judges after the Corrections Corp. of America informed them it intended to contract directly with the federal government through the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee to house federal prisoners at CCA’s Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Hubbard Road.

The judges then ordered the county to file by Jan. 15 “a comprehensive audit” of county jail operations over the past 18 months. This audit is to include the number and sources of its prisoners, and a statement of revenue from the county sales tax and from federal and city prisoners housed there, and how that revenue has been used.

Judges Alice M. Batchelder, David D. Dowd Jr. and Dan Aaron Polster said they need this information before they can decide what, if any, action to take.

Sheriff Randall Wellington said his office will perform the audit.

Except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which still pays the old rate of $68.84 a day, the federal government pays the county $80 per prisoner per day for federal inmates it places in the county jail.

The city pays $80 a day for each misdemeanor prisoner it places in the county jail beyond its 71st inmate.

The total inmate capacity is 458 in the main jail and 96 in the misdemeanor jail. As of midnight Wednesday, there were 423 inmates in the main jail and 82 in the misdemeanor jail, for a total of 505.

The federal judges are overseeing compliance with a consent order that settled a federal class action lawsuit won by county jail inmates. That lawsuit, filed in 2003, alleged unconstitutionally crowded conditions prevailed in the jail.

The settlement requires that the jail be fully open — as it is now — and it includes the arrangement for revenue-producing city and federal prisoners to be housed there.

Without an adequate number of revenue-producing inmates in the jail, the county’s ability to keep the jail fully open is jeopardized, said Glenn Kountz, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 141, which represents deputy sheriffs staffing the jail. “That’s the quagmire we find ourselves in right now,” he observed.

However, Kountz, who attended the Cleveland meeting, said the federal judges reported the U.S. Marshals they spoke to expressed no intention to remove federal inmates from the jail.

Pete Elliott, U.S. marshal for the Northern District of Ohio, told The Vindicator he does not intend to remove federal inmates from the jail.

“There is no crisis,” Wellington said, adding that he foresees no disruption in the flow of federal prisoners to the county jail from ICE or from U.S, marshals in northern or southern Ohio or western New York.

Wellington estimated his department now houses just under 150 federal inmates and 20 or fewer revenue-producing city prisoners.

In May 2007, when the county resumed housing federal prisoners after a two-year hiatus, the county derived $1,829,982 from housing federal and city prisoners, of which $130,373 came from the city.

So far this year, the county has received $4,311,424 for its revenue-generating prisoners, of which $1,066,535 came from the city.

The $4.3 million represents more than 21 percent of the sheriff’s $20 million annual budget.

In a court filing, lawyers for the county and the prisoners who sued the county said the federal government would no longer need an agreement with the county to house prisoners in its jail if Corrections Corp. of America contracted directly with the federal government to house federal prisoners at CCA’s Hubbard Road facility.

“This decision may have a significant impact on the county’s ability to house a sufficient number of federal prisoners and to thereby comply with the consent order and with the boarding of prisoners agreement with the city,” wrote Linette M. Stratford, assistant county prosecutor, and Robert Armbruster, the lawyer for the prisoners who filed the lawsuit.

The federal government now has a contract with the county to house its prisoners in the county jail and at NOCC.

A change in federal law will allow the federal government to enter into contract directly with a private company, such as the Nashville-based CCA, to house federal prisoners.

However, Wellington said: “That doesn’t shut off the faucet for inmates coming here.”

Ludt suggested federal officials may be seeking a contract with CCA because they think that company will offer a lower rate than the county.

Founded in 2001, the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee is part of the U.S. Department of Justice.

A spokeswoman for the trustee said her office has oversight over U.S. Marshals Service detention, but not over Immigration and Customs Enforcement or U.S. Bureau of Prisons detention. However, she said ICE and BOP sometimes send prisoners to detention centers under trustee contracts.

“We’re always going to want to accommodate our customers’ needs in terms of what works best for them,” Steve Owen, CCA marketing director, said of contracting arrangements. Owen said his company doesn’t elaborate publicly on discussions with its customers, which include the U.S. Marshals, ICE and BOP.

But whatever happens in the inmate housing negotiations, he said the local community benefits from having more than 400 jobs at NOCC, which pays property and sales taxes.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen after the 31st” of December, Ludt said.

If the county jail suffers a significant loss of federal prisoners, “it’s going to be devastating,” Ludt said.

With less money to operate the county jail, Wellington would have to make cuts, he said. “Wherever he decides to make the cuts, that’s up to him,” Ludt added.

Ludt said he doesn’t think the jail can be kept fully open if the sheriff loses $3 million to $5 million a year from his $20 million annual budget.

The jail also faces a loss of city prisoners. That’s because, in a money-saving move, the city has signed a one-year contract with the Community Corrections Association to divert some nonviolent inmates to electronically monitored house arrest. The city has had about 100 prisoners in county jail in recent weeks.

“Every federal prisoner that we lose and every dollar attached to that negatively affects our county budget and negatively affects, I believe, the staffing of that jail,” said county Commissioner John A. McNally IV.

“A lot of things are still in flux on this, and we’re waiting to see how it works out,” McNally concluded.

milliken@vindy.com