FINDLAY, Ohio — Hancock County Jail has been dealing with overcrowding for several years, but now, local leaders are taking action.
Findlay City Council met Tuesday night and voted unanimously to send inmates to neighboring counties, Putnam, Wood and Seneca to help lessen crowding overall.
Captain Ryan Kidwell with the Hancock County Sheriff Department said there are too many inmates to officers in the jail. One reason for that, he said, is that the number of officers on staff is dwindling, causing the inmate-to-officer ratio to be worrisome. On top of that, the number of officers needing to take overtime is growing to stressful levels.
"For us, it's about our staff. It's about their safety it's about their well-being and certainly, them being here 16 hours a day multiple days a week just... it's not a good situation," Kidwell said.
The department's administration reached out to the Criminal Justice Center for a solution, and city council agreed that changes needed to be made.
"By moving some of our inmates out of our local jail facility — both short and long term — it's going to increase our capacity to make sure the people that belong in jail, are in jail," Findlay Mayor Christina Muryn said.
While Muryn and the city board agreed that sending some inmates outside of the county makes the most sense, the goal isn't to keep inmates. It's to keep the community safe.
"We want there to be less burden to the community, create a safer environment. But also, make sure that we're solving the problem long term," Muryn said.
In the first quarter of 2022, the city will look at a Community Alternative Sentencing Center that could be expanded in five to 10 years.
Muryn admitted that overcrowding isn't a new problem for the jail, but a new facility isn't in the cards right now.
"We have an older jail facility, but coming and saying we're going to build a new jail facility of 200, 300 beds is not necessarily the best solution for our community in our opinion," Muryn said.
Another big issue is filling the vacant officer jobs at the Hancock County Jail.
Kidwell said they're working to fill a total of 11 positions, but the hiring process takes time; there's an eight-week training course, extensive screening and background checks. Everyone isn't just given a job, safety is still important both for inmates and officers.
Here's more information on how to apply at the Hancock County Jail.