BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON -- Butler County's plan to put up jail tents this spring is beginning to show cracks -- like some of the walls in the county's crowded brick-and-mortar jail.
Chief Deputy Rick Jones has accused the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction of intentionally prolonging the review process for the tent plan.
"They aren't in favor of these jail tents," he said. "Their way to deal with it is to slow down the process. We had no idea we'd have to go through this much red tape for something this simple." Chief Deputy Jones complained the state is making Butler County go through the same arduous five-step process that a community wanting to build a brick-and-mortar prison must undergo.
"Our plan's 2 to 3 inches thick," he said. "They're making us go through these five steps as though we're building a penitentiary, and we're not."
Harry Hageman, chief of Ohio's Bureau of Adult Detention, denied the state is delaying approval or making the county go through unnecessary steps.
"Ohio law requires that all jail and detention facilities go through this process," he said. "The bottom line is to ensure public safety and to ensure that inmates are held in a lawful and humane way."
Once the state receives the county's plan for the tents, the review will take less than a week, he said.
"We haven't received any plans from them yet," Mr. Hageman said. "There's nothing for us to approve until they submit it. I've never expressed any opposition to his plan, because we've never seen his plan."
Told of Mr. Hageman's comment, Chief Deputy Jones said, "I'll have the plan hand-delivered to them, and we'll see where they go from there."
He said the county likely would submit its plan this week.
With the Butler County Jail cramped, Sheriff Harold Don Gabbard wants to use large surplus Army tents for about 50 inmates during warm-weather months.
He hoped to be able to put up the tents just outside the existing jail this spring.
He devised the idea when voters in November resoundingly defeated a proposed sales tax increase to build a $34 million jail.
County Commissioner Mike Fox and sheriff's representatives visited Arizona's Maricopa County in December to observe the county's tent city compound housing 1,000 inmates.
The state must approve all plans for jail construction, expansion and renovation. The county's plan must include written administrative regulations for the tents, a staffing outline and diagrams of the tent area that show where the inmates will be housed.
Butler leaders want to be the first county in Ohio to win permission to put up tents. Jail tents exist in scattered areas throughout the country, but there are none in Ohio.
The Butler County Jail, built in 1970, has 139 beds and averages 185 inmates.
"We're just stacking up inmates on floors and in closets," Chief Deputy Jones said. "The sheriff's doing the best he can with what he has."
Chief Deputy Jones said Sheriff Gabbard is exploring other alternatives to the tents, but declined to elaborate.
