Jail closing to save money

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About 200 inmates were moved to the county jail on Court St. from the minimum security Resolutions jail, in Hamilton Thursday, June 4, 2009.

Staff photo by Greg Lynch About 200 inmates were moved to the county jail on Court St. from the minimum security Resolutions jail, in Hamilton Thursday, June 4, 2009.

Sheriff told no one, not even county commissioners, about plans to move 300 inmates Thursday night.

By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer Updated 8:32 PM Friday, June 5, 2009

HAMILTON — Butler County could save “hundreds of thousands of dollars” before the end of the year after closing the Resolutions minimum security jail in Hamilton Thursday, Sheriff Richard K. Jones announced Friday, June 5.

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.”

Resolutions, on Second Street, consists of two conjoined jails.

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.”

The move also allows him to reduce staff, possibly by laying off four or five people, Jones said.

Commissioner Gregory Jolivette was more skeptical, saying he wants a concrete savings estimate.

“I don’t know what the savings are by switching facilities,” he said. “The devil is in the details and the details aren’t always forthcoming.”

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.

Altogether, roughly 300 inmates were shuffled around in the night from roughly 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday.

Jones said he told no one — not even county commissioners — about the move ahead of time for security reasons. “We didn’t want anybody to know the routes that we go or where we’re going,” he said.

Jones said he rode in the buses with prisoners and they were jovial about the move, even asking him for autographs. He said he asked for a show of hands of how many of them had been to the Court Street Jail before.

“It was kind of surprising and disappointing, about half of their hands went up,” he said. “(Rehabilitation) doesn’t work very well, but I already knew that.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or jsweigart@coxohio.com.

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