Ohio officials plan to dole out $50 million in taxpayer-funded grants to support construction and renovation projects at 19 local jails across the state.
Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Annette Chambers-Smith announced the money, which will be awarded via the Ohio Jail Safety and Security Program.
DeWine and the Ohio General Assembly launched the program in 2021 to help local communities fund improvements at “functionally obsolete and structurally failing jails.” The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s Bureau of Adult Detention administers the program.
“This funding will not only support safer environments for those living and working in our local jails, but it will also help prepare inmates for release by creating improved spaces for workforce development, educational opportunities, and other programming,” DeWine said in a release.
Seven counties receive money for construction, expansion, or significant renovation projects. Eleven counties will use the taxpayer money for smaller renovation projects, security enhancements, and structural upgrades.
One county, Darke County, will receive $136,809 for a needs assessment and feasibility study to evaluate whether to build a new jail.
Ashtabula County received the largest allocation, $15 million, for jail renovations. The money, which covers 37% of the total project cost, will help the county increase the number of beds, add special housing, and overhaul the medical and mental health areas at its jail, which was built in 1978.
Other significant awards include nearly $7.4 million to Guernsey County for renovations and an addition; $7 million for Muskingum County to build a new 357-bed jail, replacing one built in 1977 and covering 8% of the cost; $6.7 million for Hocking County to complete a new female jail facility on the grounds of the former Hocking Correctional facility; and more than $4.4 million for Pickaway County to replace windows and undergo a security enhancement project at the jail.
“This funding will provide more safety and security in facilities and more space for programming, which will improve conditions for both staff and incarcerated people,” Chambers-Smith said in a release. “We are helping these jails provide what they need to better meet the demands of the criminal justice system in their county and prepare the incarcerated population for release back into their communities.”
Funding for this round of the Ohio Jail Safety and Security Grant Program comes from the current capital budget. With the latest awards, state officials said that more than $228 million in taxpayer money has gone to 50 jails in more than 50 counties.
“I am extremely happy that these upgrades — which were inevitable — can now be completed without the burden to the taxpayers of Jefferson County,” the Herald Star in Steubenville quoted Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla as saying. “The upgrades will also bring increased efficiency, which, hopefully, will help to reduce operating costs.”
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, the Buckeye State’s incarceration rate is 621 per 100,000 people. That total includes jails, immigration detention centers, and juvenile justice facilities in addition to state prisons.
Based on that number, the state “locks up a higher percentage of its people than almost any democratic country on earth.”
According to the group’s data, roughly 45,000 of the 71,000 people behind bars in Ohio are in state prisons. Roughly 19,000 of those incarcerated are in local jails.
Meanwhile, some Ohio law enforcement agencies have been in focus for their decision to partner with federal immigration officials to help enforce the nation’s immigration laws and house immigrants pending deportation hearings. According to The Ohio Newsroom, six jails in the Buckeye State are authorized to hold ICE detainees.
