Sheriff Closes Jail In Surprise Move
Butler County OH could save “hundreds of thousands of dollars” before the end of the year after closing the Resolutions minimum security jail in Hamilton, Sheriff Richard K. Jones announced Friday, June 5. Report from Dayton Daily News.
The surprise closure led to the shuffling of roughly 300 prisoners in the dark Thursday night, June 4, with 200 being placed at the county’s Court Street jail, which had been closed to prisoners for more than a year, and the rest at the county’s main jail. The only announcement from the sheriff Thursday came at roughly 11 p.m. via the Web site Twitter, where he posted, “I will be closing two of Butler County’s jails this date. Sheriff Jones.”
With the closure comes elimination of inmate programs such as Narcotics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous, GED programs and life skills classes. “If you want to get a GED, don’t come to jail, stay outside,” Jones said. “Jails and prisons haven’t been very successful in 200 years (in rehabilitating prisoners), so I doubt we’ve come up with some special cure in the past few weeks.”
Jones said these measures will give commissioners leeway as they negotiate new boarding rates with Hamilton-based Resolutions, Community Solutions, which manages the jail. It comes as commissioners struggle with a $6 million budget hole caused by declining revenues amid recession. Commission President Donald Dixon said this allows them to bid out the multi-million dollar Resolutions contract, which would have been difficult with the agency owning the building. “(Jones) could’ve sat there and not done anything, but he saw an opportunity to save tax dollars and took it,” Dixon said. “I applaud him for it” …
Any savings will not be immediate. The county pays Resolutions for all prisoners at all county jails, where the company provides numerous services such as food, cleaning, maintenance and other support services. The county pays $14.41 per inmate for the first 500 prisoners, $13.21 each for the next 400 and $12.79 for each one over 900. In April, there were 1,040 prisoners, making for a total bill of $428,490.
Jones said he has been planning the closure for more than six months, but acted Thursday when the number of prisoners dropped to a level it was feasible. The Court Street jail is now at capacity after mostly sitting empty since its 2006 renovation. Roughly 225 prisoners were taken out of Resolutions, with some taken to the Butler County Jail on Hanover Street. This leaves the county with room for roughly 70 more people at the two remaining jails …
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