Consultant recommends scaling back Struthers City Jail to reduce costs, liability

May 5, 2016 at 12:08a.m.

STRUTHERS

A consultant recommended to city leaders Wednesday that the city significantly scale back its jail to reduce costs and liability.

Robert Pace, formerly director of corrections at the Cuyahoga County Jail and now a consultant with Managed Confinement, presented the results of his research and suggested the city convert its jail to a restricted temporary holding facility (THF).

Struthers jail, which has a recommended maximum capacity of nine inmates, currently operates as a 12-day facility, which means it is licensed to hold inmates for up to 12 days at a time. Municipal jails may also be licensed through the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction as 12-hour THFs. The temporary holding facilities are permitted to hold inmates for up to six hours at a time.

The regulatory burden increases for higher-grade jails.

“Every hour you keep someone in your jail, your liability increases,” Pace said. “It’s like a ticking bomb.”

The Struthers jail, which was built in 1964, does not meet many of the minimum jail standards required under state law for a 12-hour facility. If the city chose to continue operating as a 12-day facility, Pace estimated it would need to spend six months and $70,000 to $80,000 on necessary improvements.

If the city chooses to scale back to a 12-hour jail, it would still need to spend about three months and $30,000 to meet standards, Pace said.

Those figures do not include the cost of training, which Pace described as the city’s “biggest deficit,” noting he was unable to find any records of jail training for Struthers police officers.

“You’re already in a deep hole in terms of training,” Pace said. “In the federal courts, failure to train is one of the more significant kinds of vicarious liability.”

In light of those costs, Pace advised the city to explore converting its jail to a restricted THF which would be utilized solely to hold inmates awaiting appearances in Struthers Municipal Court on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Six police departments currently use the Struthers jail for short-term incarceration before court appearances.

Pace declined to name a cost-estimate for implementing a THF, but recommended upgrades, such as smoke detectors and cameras, be made to the jail, the courtroom and the rest of City Hall.

He also counseled tightening up court security and hiring a part-time employee with corrections experience to supervise the THF on court days.

Though the city charges convicted offenders $50 per day to stay in the jail, Pace contended that the costs, including the potential liability, of running the jail as a 12-day or 12-hour facility “far outweigh” any revenue collected from so-called “pay-to-stay” fees. The city collected $3,650 from pay-to-stay fees in 2015, according to the auditor’s office.

The mayor said Wednesday that he is reviewing the city’s options and is inclined to agree with Pace that a THF would be the city’s most cost-effective course of action. He noted that housing city inmates in the Mahoning County jail would mean that Struthers officers wouldn’t have to expend time supervising the city jail, which could mean more officers would be available to patrol the streets.

The county charges cities $80 per inmate per day to house inmates in the Mahoning County Jail, if those inmates are charged with violating city ordinances rather than state law.

At the mayor’s request, city council voted March 23 to hire Pace to audit the Struthers jail for a fee not to exceed $7,000.

The vote came on the heels of the September 2015 hanging death of a Struthers jail inmate. Two police captains were disciplined with unpaid suspensions for failing to follow protocol in the hours before the suicide.

In December 2015, Atty. David Engler sent the city a letter threatening a federal lawsuit over the inmate’s death on behalf of his estate. Though that lawsuit has not yet been filed, Engler asks for compensation exceeding $4 million. After receiving that letter, the city, through its insurance company, hired Cleveland-based attorney John Travis.

Pace told city council in March that he prepared an oral report after Travis asked him to serve as a possible expert witness for the city. Travis declined to comment on that matter, citing attorney-client privilege.