WOOD COUNTY, Ohio — According to the Wood County sheriff, the jail population is down to a 15-year-low as officials across the local criminal justice system work to slow the spread of the virus.
In the middle of March, the jail population was 156. Now it's down to 95.
"I am extremely pleased that we're below a hundred. It has never been that way in my history here," said Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn. "It really is making it easier for us to manage the inmates and segregate them."
The sheriff said the population is low for a number of reasons.
One being that the court system has stepped in by ordering the release of low-crime inmates and issuing court summons rather than taking people to the jail.
The sheriff said fewer people are being arrested and are behaving under the state's stay-at-home order.
"Our deputies out in the public don't have too have much interaction with the public which is good because people are not out-and-about. Without as many people out, there's less crime."
Crashes are also down significantly. The sheriff's office handled over a 1,000 crashes a year. Now the sheriff said they're handling a fraction of that on a daily basis.
Within the last week, the sheriff's office went through a 24-hour period with no written reports, a single crash incident or an admittance of new inmates; something the Sheriff says is unheard of for his office.