Ohio

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Finds Solution to Over-Crowding in Jail

By Cleveland Law Library

Local complaints about the Cuyahoga County jail being over-crowded have been swirling around for years.The Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office recently did something concrete about it by implementing Phase I of a new plan to ship inmates who are charged with low-level felonies elsewhere. As cleveland.com reported, everyone who was charged on the West side with either a 4th or 5th degree felony was recently sent to the Bedford Heights jail. This has apparently caused consternation among some local judges who are concerned about the impact these transfers will have on their ability to handle their criminal dockets. In particular, Judge Stuart Friedman has commented on the fact that the inmates are no longer close by at the Justice Center when they are needed for court proceedings. His temporary solution--order the prisoners remanded to the county lock-up for arraignments pending further disposition. An alternative could be  use of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court's video-conference facility at the Justice Center for virtual arraignments of defendants being held in suburban jails. Regardless of the success of Phase I of the the Sheriff's plan, phase II involves doing the same thing for inmates charged on the East side of Cleveland, who will be sent to jails in Euclid and Solon.

Full post as published by Cleveland Law Library Weblog on September 04, 2008 (boomark / email).