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Hubbard looks to downsize city jail
By Sarah Lehr
HUBBARD
City officials are planning to scale back the Hubbard jail in the wake of compliance issues highlighted during a state inspection.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction licenses municipal jails according to the maximum allowable length of stay for an inmate.
Higher-grade jails face more-stringent regulatory requirements.
Currently the state licenses the Hubbard jail as a 12-hour facility, capable of holding an inmate for no more than 12 hours at a time.
Hubbard Safety Director Louis Carsone and Police Chief James Taafe want the jail to instead become a temporary holding facility capable of holding an inmate for up to six hours.
The ODRC notified the city in February 2017 of issues identified during the 2016 yearly inspection of the jail.
Hubbard’s facility lacked documentation proving that a physician approved the jail’s training protocol for screening inmates. The state requires an officer to screen inmates for physical and mental-health problems before booking them into the jail.
Hubbard also lacked documentation showing that a physician had approved the jail’s medical policies, in general.
The state requires those provisions for 12-hour facilities, but not for six-hour temporary holding facilities. Taafe estimates it would take up to $8,000 to hire a physician to rectify the situation.
The cost of complying with 12-hour requirements, Carsone believes, would outweigh the benefits.
The jail, built in 2006, does not keep inmates overnight. People do not serve sentences in the Hubbard jail after they are convicted of crimes. The facility holds people immediately after they are arrested.
The jail, located on the first-floor of the police department building, has only two cells.
Carsone said the city uses its jail, which was built in 2006, rarely.
Instead, Hubbard police often release suspects on summonses to appear in court. In more serious cases, Hubbard transports suspects to the Trumbull County jail, which is more secure.
Ohio law allows county jails to charge cities daily fees for housing inmates arrested by city police if those inmates face only local charges rather than state charges, or a combination of state and local charges.
Trumbull County, however, does not charge cities, such as Hubbard, for housing inmates. Mahoning County charges cities $80 per inmate per day.
To finalize the switch to a six-hour facility, Hubbard will need to request a change from the ODRC and then await the agency’s approval. The city has been in communication with state regulators and expects the ODRC’s assent.
Hubbard Mayor John Darko said he supports Carsone’s vision for the jail. Carsone informed city council of the plan during a caucus session this week.
Hubbard is on track to become the latest in a string of Mahoning Valley cities that have downsized their jails.
In 2016, Campbell Mayor Nick Phillips decided to cut back that city’s jail from a 12-day facility to a six-hour temporary holding facility. Phillips cited costs and potential liability for noncompliance.
Also in 2016, Struthers Mayor Terry Stocker converted the Struthers jail from 12-day facility to a six-hour facility. The mayor later decided to shut down the jail.
Carsone opposes shutting down the Hubbard jail. It is convenient and cost effective for Hubbard police to have the option of holding suspects for short periods of time, instead of driving them to the county lockup in Warren, Carsone said.
Taafe also said, if the city completely nixed its jail, it would be more difficult to reopen it in the future. This is because Hubbard would lose the ability to be grandfathered in for certain compliance mandates; it instead would have to comply with regulations taking effect at the time of reopening.
Serious compliance problems at the Struthers jail came into focus after the 2015 suicide of an inmate. The city of Struthers reached a $750,000 settlement with the family of the deceased in 2016.