By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
As Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn gazed Wednesday at the new booking cells, the expanded sallyport and the new medical area for inmates, he used a curious term to describe the no-frills concrete and metal facility.
“I think it’s beautiful,” he said.
But more importantly, Wasylyshyn said, the expansion will be good for inmates and for deputies staffing the jail.
So what’s new?
On Wednesday morning, the sheriff and Capt. Rebecca McMonigal, the Wood County Jail administrator, gave a tour of the expanded areas in the jail to county officials and media.
The $28 million project includes a new booking area and sallyport, both which will be open starting next Tuesday for law enforcement dropping off inmates. The new medical cells will be completed soon after. And the additional female housing and secure cells are expected to be done in August.
The expansion doubled the number of holding cells in booking from five to 10. That should alleviate the need to put multiple inmates in one cell. Four medical cells have been added, where there were none before.
“Most of the time these folks are on some type of substance,” like meth, fentanyl, or alcohol, McMonigal said. Inmates going through detox must be monitored, and the medical area will be staffed around-the-clock by a nurse.
The new sallyport has space for six vehicles, rather than three. So multiple vehicles can drop off inmates at once, and the ceiling is now tall enough for Bowling Green ambulances to fit inside.
One additional cell will provide room for inmates headed to court, which will separate outgoing prisoners from inmates arriving to be booked in.
Before being booked, every inmate must go through a body scanner, which can identify items in body cavities or balloons of drugs that have been swallowed. The jail was the first in Ohio to have such a scanner, which works as a deterrent to inmates considering contraband, the sheriff said.
Inmates are photographed, fingerprinted, take showers, are de-liced then given jail clothing. The items they brought to jail are locked in property bags.
Also in the newly expanded area are rooms for meetings between inmates and professionals, like attorneys. There are two rooms equipped for video court arraignments. Prior to COVID, just Bowling Green and Perrysburg courts allowed video arraignments. More courts using video is good for the jail, Wasylyshyn said. Transporting inmates to court appearances costs money, requires two deputies, and involves risks.
The new area also has room for video visitations with inmates. All family and friend visitations are no-contact, the sheriff said.
Always expanding
It wasn’t long after Wasylyshyn took over as sheriff in 2005 that he broke it to the county commissioners that the crowded jail was spending $500,000 a year housing inmates in other counties.
Since then, the jail has undergone multiple expansions to keep up with the local inmate population.
Wasylyshyn made his first pitch about this latest jail expansion to the county commissioners seven years ago.
The project had been approved by the Wood County Commissioners in early 2020, but when COVID hit the expansion was put on hold since the impact of the pandemic was unknown.
Throughout 2020, the inmate population at Wood County Jail was thinned in an effort to slow the potential impact of COVID-19 at the facility. Within the first couple weeks of Ohio’s pandemic plan being put in place, the jail population went from 165 to 120. As the pandemic went on, the inmate numbers dropped into the 70s.
But criminal activity has rebounded somewhat, with addiction and mental health issues on the increase.
“It’s creeping up again,” with the average jail population around 119 now, McMonigal said.
COVID had resulted in some judges using more treatment options and monitored home incarcerations rather than typical jail sentences, McMonigal said.
At the same time, changes in some sentencing laws in Ohio have also contributed to increased jail populations, Wasylyshyn said. Common pleas court judges used to be able to sentence anyone convicted of a felony to prison. However, now those convicted of level 3, 4 or 5 felonies must be sentenced to jails, not prisons.
“I get it. No one wants to spend money on jails. They’d rather spend money on bridges, monuments and buildings,” Wasylyshyn said when going back to the commissioners in 2021. “I know it’s a lot of money, but it’s the right thing.”
While it may not be a popular use of taxpayer dollars, “The county has been in the jail business since 1820, and that’s not likely to change,” the sheriff said.
The current capacity of the jail is 220 inmates – however that number can be misleading since inmates who require secure cells cannot be housed in the dormitory sections. And females cannot be placed in cells in male areas of the jail.
Also, some inmates need to be kept separated from others if they are members of rival gangs, if they are part of the same case that is going to trial, or if they have a history with other prisoners.
When 36 secure female beds are added this summer, and some current female beds converted into secure male housing, there will be up to 280 beds in the jail, McMonigal said.
Progress on expansion was slowed by the nature of the facility – where electric power can never be cut, plumbing must always be functioning, and inmates must be secured.
But the costs and inconvenience of housing local inmates in other areas was not an option, the sheriff said.
Programs for prisoners
One of the growing demands on the jail comes from inmates with serious mental health problems. The jail is offering more programs for inmates, such as Alcoholics Anonymous and anger management classes.
“There’s such a long wait to get into programs in the outside world,” but the jail can provide them with fewer delays, the sheriff said.
“Sheriff’s are the number one mental health providers in the country. That’s wrong, but that’s the way it is,” he said.
Wasylyshyn pointed out that the health of inmates is monitored and decided by medical professionals – not deputies.
“If a nurse says this person needs to go to the hospital, they go to the hospital,” he said.
And if an inmate comes into the jail without warm outerwear in the winter, they are given some when they leave. “If someone comes here without a coat, we’re going to provide them with a coat when they walk out of here,” Wasylyshyn said.
The jail consistently scores 100% on the annual inspections by the Bureau of Adult Detention, a feat pointed out by Wood County Commissioner Craig LaHote during the tour.
“It looks clean, it smells clean, because it is clean,” the sheriff said.
“We have a really great staff,” who take pride in their work, McMonigal added.
Wasylyshyn emphasized the need for jails to meet standards. “Ninety-nine percent of inmates are good people who made bad decisions,” he said.
And an estimated half of the inmates on any given day at Wood County Jail have not been sentenced and are still awaiting trial, McMonigal said.
