By Marilyn Miller
Akron Beacon Journal
AKRON, Ohio — At the Summit County jail, the gym is silent and the library empty.
For those locked up for alcohol or drug violations, there no longer are meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.
There are no GED or art classes from Kent State University.
No anger management program.
There are no Sunday worship services and fewer visitations.
The one thing where there is a notable increase is assaults on inmates and guards.
The county sheriff is in a financial crisis, and the ramifications are clear at the jail.
“We are severely understaffed. There’s just not enough staff to handle all the prisoners,” said Sheriff Steve Barry.
A wing will be closed and prisoners of all types moved closer to one another — or released — to match staffing.
Voters defeated a proposal in November that would have raised the county sales tax by a quarter percent to help with law enforcement costs. The issue, which would have raised about $20 million annually for 10 years, originally was proposed to also fund construction of a downtown arena. It was soundly defeated.
Since the deep recession of 2008, county budget cutbacks and reduced funding from the state, the sheriff has not been able to fill vacancies created by departures.
“In 2009 we lost 30 deputies to layoffs, now the number is so low that we have to utilize overtime just to keep the jail at a bare bone in staffing,” Barry said. “Safety has always been my No. 1 concern.”
He has been reluctant to share specific numbers for fear of making guards vulnerable. That is, until deputies said: “Do you think inmates don’t know there’s a shortage when they see one or two deputies covering an area where there used to be four or five?” said Barry.
There are 21 pods in the jail, each able to house 24 to 48 inmates. Capacity is 671, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
However, there are 150 jail deputies and 19 supervisors.
That loss of the free-time programs has affected discipline.
“Those outlets were sometimes used as leverage with the inmates, to help handle discipline problems, but now we have nothing to bargain with anymore,” said jail commander Maj. Dale Soltis. “It creates a volatile atmosphere, much more than it used to be.”
Barry said tempers have flared and people are getting hurt. Deputies do not carry firearms, but instead wear a belt equipped with a taser gun, pepper spray and a radio.
“We’ve had several pretty serious assaults,” he said. “About three or four weeks ago an inmate stabbed another in the head with a homemade weapon. He sharpened up the wooden piece of a toilet plunger.
“Six weeks ago a deputy was bitten by an inmate. Then we had a deputy attacked about six months ago when he was checking the door near an inmate. He was seriously assaulted and required hospitalization and follow-up care. The inmate had him against a railing on a second-floor tier and was beating him. He was knocked back, but managed to avoid going over the rail.”
Barry said the deputy’s radio had been knocked across the floor, so he couldn’t call for help. It was another inmate who alerted other guards.
There’s no flexibility, because the budget shortfall affects the entire sheriff’s office.
The number of detectives has dwindled from 12 when Barry was a detective to four.
When court is in session, several jail deputies may be occupied shuttling and guarding inmates.
As for placement of inmates, juveniles cannot be in the line of vision of adults, let alone housed with adults.
A hospitalized inmate requires around-the-clock watch, and the county has to pay the medical bills. This month, an inmate had a heart attack and another had a baby.
To control those costs, the sheriff and judges negotiated a deal a year ago that identifies “viable candidate” inmates with major medical conditions and allows for their release, according to Greg Macko, chief of corrections.
“It not only frees up the fact that we don’t have to pay the hospital bill, but also frees up a deputy because then we don’t have to guard them,” Macko said. “Obviously if you have someone in jail for murder or aggravated robbery the judges aren’t going to authorize those releases. The furlough is for nonviolent felonies or those charged with misdemeanors.”
Will the county place another tax issue on the ballot to help the sheriff’s department?
“I don’t see that happening anytime soon,” Barry said. “We don’t feel the public sentiment is there and it’s very expensive to advertise.
“We just don’t have any resources left,” he said.