By Tiffany Y. Latta, Staff Writer
Dayton Daily News
LEBANON, Ohio — When word spread that some would get released early, Warren County Jail inmates were buzzing.
“Everybody wanted to be chosen. Most people who were, were grateful for the chance. Other people were laughing and saying they were going to go out and get wasted. We saw quite a few come right back,’' said Carla Williams, 39, of Lebanon, who spent five months in the jail in 2005 for passing bad checks.
Williams and other felons were ineligible for early release. But since that year, nearly 300 prisoners charged with or convicted of less serious crimes have been released early and many more not booked into the jail or not arrested at all, law enforcement officials said.
Early releases and turning away prisoners are necessary because the 207-bed jail is too crowded, Sheriff Tom Ariss and his chief deputy Larry Sims said.
This practice erodes the integrity of the criminal justice system and gives criminals a chance to commit more crimes, said County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel and other law enforcement officials.
“If offenders get the impression that they’re not going get punished or that punishment is going be lessened, we’re going to have them thumbing their noses at the criminal justice system,’' Hutzel said.
How many people left the jail early and committed another crime?
Authorities don’t know because they said they don’t keep track of the people who had to be rearrested after being released early. However, Hutzel said she fears the number of repeat offenders will increase if the space crunch isn’t solved soon.
The Warren County Jail in Lebanon, expanded in 1996 in anticipation of a population boom, was overcrowded five years after its construction and is now at its “breaking point,’' consultants with the National Institute of Corrections said.
Since 1990, the county’s population has swelled from 116,000 to 205,000 - a 77 percent increase - straining schools, roads, the courts and especially the jail.
Temporary fixes such as sending at least 30 inmates a day to jails in Miami and Logan counties helped reduce the number of inmates released early from 195 in 2005 to 70 in 2006, Sims said.
But housing prisoners in jails in other counties costs taxpayers about $400,000 a year in addition to expenses for jail staff transporting the prisoners and overtime for the guards.
County officials argued for years about possible solutions. Commissioner Michael Kilburn wanted the sheriff to add a second bunk to cells that have one bed. Ariss refused, saying the cells were too small and double bunking would violate state safety standards that Kilburn and other county officials agreed to follow.
Ariss and the county commissioners finally reached an agreement in April to spend $6 million to increase the number of jail beds and send more prisoners to alternative sentencing programs, such as house arrest.
They will add a 96-bed pod to the jail and raise the roof in one part of the building to double or possibly triple bunk beds.
The plan will nearly double the number of available beds and save taxpayers $14 million by not building a new jail, said Commissioner Dave Young.
However, the pod is a temporary fix until officials find money to build an addition or a new jail because of security concerns, Ariss said. Warren County will expand only the space for beds but not other key areas, such as where prisoners book in after being arrested.
“I’d also love to talk about doing a regional jail with the surrounding counties,” Young said. “Cooperation makes sense, but with that said that’s going to be sometime down the road.’'
Copyright 2007 Dayton Newspapers, Inc.