Tuesday, December 07, 1999
County wants break from prisoners
State's parole violators take up jail space
BY DAN KLEPAL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Hamilton County is spending about $4,000 per day — and sometimes more than $10,000 daily — housing Ohio prison parole violators without any way to send a bill to the state for reimbursement.
That's because of a 1996 change in the law that allows, and sometimes requires, judg es to sentence violators to county jails rather than state prisons.
Hamilton County commissioners are working to change the law because they say it is unfair for the state to require them to house, feed and guard state prisoners without any help in paying the bills.
There are now 63 people being housed at the Hamilton County Justice Center because of parole violation “holds” placed on them by the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
An additional 172 people have parole holds placed on them because they were arrested on new charges. Although these people would have been brought to the county jail after arrest anyway, they are not eligible for bail because of the parole holds.
It costs about $65 per day to house inmates at the county facility, said Joe Schmitz, director of corrections for Hamilton County.
“The state doesn't pay anything at all,” County Commissioner John Dowlin said. “The money would be nice, but we're close to capacity at our jails, and these people take up beds. That's the real issue to us.”
Mr. Dowlin, a member of the Ohio Sentencing Commission, is gathering statewide statistics on county jails housing parole violators. He hopes to make a presentation to the sentencing commission and the state legislature in the coming months.
That may help persuade the state to rewrite the law, Mr. Dowling said.
County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus said Hamilton County will be dealing from a position of strength when it makes the request.
Mr. Bedinghaus said the county has instituted Drug Court and other methods to help reduce its jail population, only to have parole violators lie in the open beds.
“We haven't just sat on our hands and waited,” Mr. Bedinghaus said. “So at this point we have a much stronger case for the General Assembly than we did when we protested this two years ago.
“Capacity of our jail is the problem, and reimbursement from the state for housing prisoners won't solve that.”
When passed in 1996, the law meant to bring “truth in sentencing,” meaning that an exact sentence would be handed down by the court rather than a range of time, such as 10 to 20 years.
Added onto that law was a provision that parole violators could be sent to county jails, in addition to being sent back to prison.
John Kinkela, chief of the adult parole authority for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correc tion, said the amount of time a parolee can be sent back to state prison is a maximum of half of his original sentence.
County jails can hold prisoners for a maximum of nine months, so many parole violators receiving short sentences are being sent to county jails, Mr. Kinkela said.
“The legislature gave adult parole the authority to use county jails,” Mr. Kinkela said. “It wasn't an option before.”
The commissioners may have a sympathetic ear in state Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green. He is chairman of the Judicial Committee and a former county commissioner in Wood County. Mr. Latta said he is aware of the unfunded mandate.
“I do have a concern that we don't put the burden back on the counties, when these people are potentially state prisoners,” Mr. Latta said. “In my mind, if that's happening, then probably the legislature ought to go back and look at it.”
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