BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Leaders in Wood County are weighing their options on how to expand the county's jail.
Expansions are needed for two different reasons, according to Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn. The first one is directly related to the opioid crisis.
"The biggest change we've seen are significant increase of people who are detoxing from heroine opioids and other drugs" said Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn.
Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn said the jail's medical area is too small to deal with people detoxing and going through mental health issues.
Expanding that area of the jail will cost around $9 million. Most of the approved money for the project will come from the county's capital improvement fund.
Additionally, jails across Ohio are seeing a rise in the number of female inmates.
Like many jails across the state and even country, Wood County is currently housing some females from other jails. If the county were to add female beds while expanding their medical booking area, the county could save some money because the projects are combined.
Adding a couple dozen beds has not been approved in the project just yet, and the cost to do so could be more than $25 million including the detox expansion.
"No one wants to spend money on jails, I get it! It's not like building a bridge or something exciting," Wasylyshyn said.
If the entire expansion is approved, it will take 18 months for construction to begin.