Center needs improvements

Staff report

WARREN

Improvements to cell-door locks, cell floors and cooling system are helping prevent a repeat of the Aug. 14 prisoner escape at the Trumbull County Juvenile Justice Center.

Family Court judges Pam Rintala and Richard James told county commissioners Wednesday about the improvements, some of which are complete.

But problems relating to a switchboard panel in the control room might require the county to borrow the money to replace it.

The panel is supposed to inform employees whether cell doors are locked, Judge Rintala said. The panel was installed in 1988.

Commissioners and Auditor Adrian Biviano agreed that it’s time to spend the money to bring the facility up to date.

“The escape was a wake-up call that it’s time to do something,” Commissioner Paul Heltzel said after the meeting.

Biviano noted that with interest rates at their current low level, the county should issue bonds to secure the money this year.

Don Tay Johnson, 16, of Youngstown, and another youth apparently pried open the locks to their cells, enabling them to get out, then walked through doors that were left open because of poor ventilation, the judges said.

Tile flooring in the cells needs to be removed to prevent inmates from using pieces of it to pry open a lock, Judge Rintala said.

Johnson is back in custody at the facility after his capture Aug. 24 in Youngstown.

Magistrate Monte Horton ordered Johnson to remain locked up during a detention hearing Aug. 24. He has not had a hearing on the assault and escape charges that resulted from his escape, said Stanley Elkins, an assistant county prosecutor.