Trumbull County jail described as ‘at overcapacity’

Staff report

WARREN

Don Guarino, chief deputy at the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office, doesn’t use the term overcrowded to describe the jail, but it is at overcapacity right now.

Guarino said he sent out a letter to county judges last week notifying them the jail had reached about 300 inmates — or about 20 over the jail’s capacity of 280.

The jail can exceed capacity, but that begins to open the possibility of inmates’ having to sleep on floors, so officials do what they can to avoid it, Guarino said.

Last week was the second time this summer the jail has reached overcapacity, Guarino said. Letters to the judges also were sent early this summer because the jail went beyond 280 inmates for about three weeks.

A Warren police report from Friday morning said William F. Butler III, 46, of Linda Drive Northwest was taken into custody for bothering customers at the Pit Stop convenience store on Youngstown Road Southeast.

After a police officer warned Butler once to leave, he returned again and frightened an elderly female customer enough that the customer left, police said.

But when Lt. Cathy Spencer took Butler to the jail, she was advised the facility “would not hold him, so we released him to his aunt.”

Butler appeared Monday in Warren Municipal Court, pleading innocent to misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. He was released on a personal recognizance bond, meaning at no cost.

Butler has been charged 42 times in Warren Municipal Court since 1995.

Guarino said the jail never has refused to take an inmate, but there are situations in which officers have agreed to release misdemeanor suspects on a summons to appear in court instead of being locked up.

That does not happen in felony arrests or in crimes in which there is a victim.